With Spider-Man: Brand New Day in theaters, we finally have an answer to the greatest question of our time: who is Sadie Sink playing in the MCU? It’s not Mayday Parker, an alternate universe child of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. It’s definitely not Shathra, the Spider-Queen. Nope! In fact — and spoilers past this point — Sadie Sink is playing the telepathic X-Men character known as Jean Elaine Grey.
…Oh wait, you guessed that based on her red hair? Good for you. You’re so smart. A big congratulations from us here on the internet, go buy yourself an ice cream.
Sarcasm aside, this was one of the worst kept secrets in film history, and it led to a ton of lying on the part of multiple actors in the movie. Sure it’s part of the promotional campaign for the film, keeping the guessing game going. But frankly, this exterior pressure on the movie to deliver some sort of jaw-dropping surprise when it comes to Sink’s identity is a detriment to the film itself… Which presents an actually very cool and very interesting reinvention of not just Jean Grey, but lore around the X-Men as a whole.
To give some context here, early on in the film Spider-Man (Tom Holland) encounters a seemingly unfettered mind, one that can jump from person to person, controlling them. Only Spider-Man can sense the “mind,” which makes him a threat to what he/she/it is looking for — and an ally of Damage Control, and their leader, William Metzger (Tramell Tillman). The effect that accompanies the mind jumping from person to person (they’re credited as “The Inhabited” in the end credits) is very unique, and very physical, with people looking like they were hit with a baseball bat as who is later revealed to be Jean Grey takes over their bodies. And director Destin Daniel Cretton utilizes it like a horror movie effect, following Jean’s mind in camera as it jumps all over New York City.
But as for the reveal itself, that happens relatively early in the movie. Sure if you were entirely unaware of the rumors around Sink you might have been shocked when a computer screen reveals she’s Jean Elaine Grey. But it’s not like Spider-Man or MJ (Zendaya) shout “oh, you mean from the X-Men?” when the name appears because A) the X-Men don’t exist in the MCU yet, and B) they don’t know who Jean is. Why she’s doing what she’s doing is the mystery, not her identity, and it continues to unravel as the movie wears on.
In fact, Cretton and company’s point of view on the iconic Mutant is so strong that it begins to take over the movie while Spider-Man mostly moves to the background. We discover Jean’s backstory, which is that she and her sister Sara (Olivia Booth-Ford) were driven out when their mother found out they were telepaths, Sara was captured by Damage Control, and Jean has been trying to rescue her as well as discover her mysterious last message, “V Max.” Only when she’s also captured, she discovers that’s a loose label on an AC unit, the last thing Sara saw before she died after being tortured by Metzger.
What we get with Jean here, both in terms of how her power is visually executed and in the tragedy of her backstory is perfectly X-Men, but entirely unlike anything we’ve seen so far on screen. This isn’t the confident mutant warriors of X-Men ’97 or the Fox movies, it’s a lost teenager with out of control powers. Core to the Marvel Comics characters is the idea that they protect a world that hates and fears them. While we haven’t seen Jean protect yet, we have a clear sense of why the world may hate and fear mutants, how they’re different from the superheroes we’ve seen so far in the MCU, and a different view on Jean’s telepathy and telekinesis than seen with either Famke Janssen or Sophie Turner.
Sink, also, is a phenomenal actor, and easily the best scenes in the movie are the ones towards the end where she enters Peter Parker’s mind and gets a virtual pep talk from the otherwise deceased Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). Not only does it put Peter into the mentor figure position held in the previous three movies by a variety of bearded MCU stars, but it also creates a clear bond between Holland’s Spider-Man and Sink’s Jean Grey. There’s great chemistry there that would be wonderful to see continue (and we probably will in 2027’s Secret Wars). It’s the sort of pairing that shouldn’t work on paper (why are they introducing X-Men in a Spider-Man movie?), but the MCU used to make work, all the time, to great effect.
This is a long way around to say that if Sony and Marvel had initially announced that Sink was playing Jean Grey, it would not have taken anything away from the movie. If anything, it might have enhanced the viewing, allowing audience members in the know to be one step ahead of Spider-Man as he tries to unravel this mind mystery, with none of the emotional impact or thrill of discovery lessened.
And externally, it would have allowed the cast to talk about the role and not have Sink have to avoid every question. I’m sure a slew of interviews will come out shortly delving into this reveal, but nothing was gained by stretching out this real-world mystery other than testing the patience of every fan and journalist in existence. And I’m no market researcher for SONY, but it’s not unreasonable to think that announcing Sink is playing Jean Grey of the X-Men in advance would have increased the curiosity factor from people wondering about the MCU’s take on the X-Men, played by an actor from one of the most popular shows in the history of television (that would be Stranger Things).
Instead, we have lying actors, a mystery that that was more frustrating than fun, and a visually unique and thematically rich take on a classic character and franchise that is coated in a sheen of exasperation. It’s the same sort of thing as the reveal that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were in Spider-Man: No Way Home, another twist that was known about for months and lied about for longer. Perhaps next Spider-Man movie, they can just announce the cast in advance?
Whatever they decide: welcome to the MCU, Jean Grey. Hope you survive the experience.
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