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This article contains possible spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
To me, my Spider-Man! Okay, that’s not how the line goes. But for months now, fans have been speculating that at least one of Marvel’s Mighty Mutants would be making their MCU debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Sadie Sink has long been rumored to play Jean Grey, the mutant telepath who serves as a founding member of the X-Men.
Notice the word “rumored,” because thus far, the identity of Sink’s character has not been revealed. However, Sink does appear for a few seconds in the latest trailer for Brand New Day, and she’s doing a lot of things that Jean Grey would do—especially if Jean had not yet enrolled in Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
The latest trailer reminds us that Peter Parker is in a bad way after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. With his Aunt May gone and his identity erased from the minds of everyone, including best friends Ned and MJ (Jacob Batalon and Zendaya), Peter is more alone than ever. He’s got villains like the Scorpion to deal with, played by a finally-returning and finally in-costume Michael Mando, and he seems to be going through some type of mutation. To make matters worse, he has to deal with Hand ninjas. Also, he has a Hulk, but not in a good way.
Amidst it all, Spidey seems to have been recruited by an organization run by a character played by Severance‘s Tramell Tillman to capture Sadie Sink’s character. Who is that character? Well, she’s wearing yellow and green and she has red hair. Also, she seems to be able to take over people’s minds, a lot like a certain mutant we know.
Or is it? When Jean Grey first debuted in 1963’s Uncanny X-Men #1, by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, she possessed only telekinesis, the ability to move things with her mind. We certainly see her doing those things in the trailer, potentially even lifting vehicles. But the standout section of the trailer sees Sink’s character either controlling minds or potentially jumping from body to body, like the killer in the movie Fallen, which isn’t traditionally one of Jean’s original powers.
Jean doesn’t start showing telepathic abilities until X-Men #43 (1968). A decade later, Marvel retconned her origin to reveal that Jean has always been a powerful telepath, but Professor Xavier blocked out some of her abilities to prevent her from being overwhelmed (or to control her because, as we should all remember, Professor Xavier is a jerk).
That inconsistency in her power set may point to Jean playing a different character, perhaps the Spider-Queen—who controls and army of drones—or Shathra, the inter-dimensional monster who hunts people with spider-powers. Both characters come from around the time of the comic storyline The Other, which seems to be a major inspiration for Brand New Day, and both work as villains.
Yet, there are two things in the trailer that point away from those villains and toward someone who is misunderstood instead of evil. First, we see that the Punisher Frank Castle is helping this girl, possibly out of his own volition instead of mind-control. Second, Tillman’s character seems to be related to the Department of Damage Control, the MCU Homeland Security equivalent that has not been friendly to superheroes like Spidey or Ms. Marvel. So if Frank is for her, and Damage Control is against her, she’s probably a good egg.
Most importantly of all, if you watch the trailer with the subtitles on, you’ll see that the captions identity Tillman’s character as “Metzger.” That’s William Metzger, a very minor character introduced in 1999’s X-Men: Children of the Atom #1 by Joe Casey and Steve Rude. Metzger was an anti-mutant activist who gained traction in the U.S. government for a short time. While Marvel has no problem radically imagining minor characters from the comics (remember when Man-Thing’s girlfriend Ellen Brandt became an Extremis bomber in Iron Man 3?), the Metzger name seems telling.
So, to recap, the trailer shows a red-haired girl in yellow and green who can move things with her mind, has telepathy, scares Damage Control and an anti-mutant bigot in particular, and wins the support of Frank Castle. Sure sounds like Jean Grey is here, and the X-Men can’t be far behind.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives on July 31, 2026.
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