  The early release science results from $\textit{JWST}$ have yielded an
unexpected abundance of high-redshift luminous galaxies that seems to be in
tension with current theories of galaxy formation. However, it is currently
difficult to draw definitive conclusions form these results as the sources have
not yet been spectroscopically confirmed. It is in any case important to
establish baseline predictions from current state-of-the-art galaxy formation
models that can be compared and contrasted with these new measurements. In this
work, we use the new large-volume ($L_\mathrm{box}\sim 740 \, \mathrm{cMpc}$)
hydrodynamic simulation of the MillenniumTNG project, suitably scaled to match
results from higher resolution - smaller volume simulations, to make
predictions for the high-redshift ($z\gtrsim8$) galaxy population and compare
them to recent $\textit{JWST}$ observations. We show that the simulated galaxy
population is broadly consistent with observations until $z\sim10$. From
$z\approx10-12$, the observations indicate a preference for a galaxy population
that is largely dust-free, but is still consistent with the simulations. Beyond
$z\gtrsim12$, however, our simulation results underpredict the abundance of
luminous galaxies and their star-formation rates by almost an order of
magnitude. This indicates either an incomplete understanding of the new
$\textit{JWST}$ data or a need for more sophisticated galaxy formation models
that account for additional physical processes such as Population~III stars,
variable stellar initial mass functions, or even deviations from the standard
$\Lambda$CDM model. We emphasise that any new process invoked to explain this
tension should only significantly influence the galaxy population beyond
$z\gtrsim10$, while leaving the successful galaxy formation predictions of the
fiducial model intact below this redshift.
