Sadie Sink Explains Why Jean Grey’s Actions in SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Are Totally Justified
Jean Grey may be causing some serious problems for Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but Sadie Sink doesn’t think we should be so quick to slap the villain label on her.
Sink has finally opened up about playing the powerful mutant in the MCU and how she approached Jean’s complicated role in the new Spider-Man movie.
While Jean emerges as one of Spider-Man’s biggest threats, Sink believes everything her character does makes perfect sense from Jean’s perspective. Considering what she’s been put through, it’s not exactly difficult to understand why.
Jean’s conflict is rooted in her experience with the Department of Damage Control, which targeted her and attempted to study her dangerous mental abilities. This version of Jean can enter another person’s mind and take control of their body, making her an incredibly powerful person for an organization like Damage Control to have on its radar.
Jean obviously isn’t thrilled about her sister being treated like a human science experiment, and that anger eventually puts her directly in Spider-Man’s path. Peter Parker attempts to stop her as Jean starts making increasingly dangerous choices, turning their confrontation into something more complicated than the usual hero-versus-villain showdown.
That complexity was important to Sink. In an interview with Variety, she explained that she never approached Jean as someone who wakes up wanting to be the bad guy.
“They told me that I was the villain, but that you’re not actually the villain, which is how I played her. I don’t really want to lean into, like this bad guy aura. Because in her brain it’s totally justified. Which I mean, I agree. I think it is.”
That feels like the right way to handle Jean Grey. Her actions can be dangerous and still come from a place audiences understand. She’s been targeted because of her abilities, subjected to attempts to study those powers, and pushed into a situation where anger and retaliation become understandable responses. Spider-Man still has to deal with the damage she causes, but Jean doesn’t have to become a cartoonish MCU villain in the process.
Sink’s performance also adds another chapter to Jean Grey’s long live-action history. She’s the third actor to portray the iconic X-Men character on the big screen. Famke Janssen originated the role in Fox’s original X-Men films, while Sophie Turner played the younger Jean Grey in the later reboot movies.
This doesn’t appear to be a one-and-done Marvel appearance for Sink, either. The actress is expected to return as Jean Grey in Marvel Studios’ upcoming X-Men movie, and she has already had conversations with director Jake Schreier about where the character could go next.
One major part of Jean’s future will apparently involve learning how to control the immense power inside her. That struggle should give Sink plenty to explore as Jean develops beyond the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Jean Grey has always been most interesting when her incredible abilities come with an equally intimidating emotional and psychological cost, and the MCU has plenty of room to dig into that.
Exactly how much room remains unknown. When asked whether her Marvel contract covered something relatively small like two movies or something enormous like 10, Sink wasn’t giving anything away, saying: “I can’t really say …”
Marvel clearly isn’t ready for her to start handing out Jean Grey’s MCU itinerary just yet.
For now, Spider-Man: Brand New Day gives audiences their first look at Sink’s take on Jean Grey, and making her an antagonist whose motivations are understandable could be a great way to introduce this new version of the character.
Peter Parker may have every reason to stop her, but Jean also has every reason to be furious about what was done to her.
That should make their conflict a lot more interesting than simply watching Spider-Man punch another bad guy.