Having kept her character a closely guarded secret through to the film’s release last month (save for a blunder on the premiere live-stream) and it now storming its way to $1.67 billion worldwide, Marvel Studios is now finally letting Sadie Sink open up about her role, not only in the blockbuster Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe to follow.
As anyone who’s seen the movie (or been online) these past couple of weeks will know, the Stranger Things actress portrays the X-Men character Jean Grey, with the Spidey sequel serving as a prologue of sorts for Marvel’s ‘Mutant Saga’ and the eventual introduction of a rebooted team of X-Men into the MCU.
“It kind of started with these online rumors I was seeing. Usually there’s not much truth to those, but in this case there was,” Sink told Vanity Fair, with regards to how the casting came about. “All the women in X-Men are so strong and interesting—their relationship with their powers, how they’re capable of doing incredible things. It gives them so much strength, but then it also affects their lives in negative ways. It was kind of nice to start out with the negative side of it with Jean, how she’s just learning what she’s capable of. And before she can even develop her relationship to her powers and what they mean to her, they are used by people who want to do harm with what she’s capable of, what her sister’s capable of. I was excited to not play a villain, but just play someone who’s only been hurt by having these abilities, and so she only knows how to use them as a threat or to defend herself.”
“I did an X-Men deep dive and I watched all of it,” she explained, with regards to her preparation for the role. “I was also really interested in, what do her powers look like? I’ve spent 10 years on Stranger Things, so I’ve been around that a lot. But that was maybe the thing I was most nervous about: How do you play that? I looked at what the other actors were doing physically, and of course visual effects play a big role in that. But I think it was most important to me that, as with anything, when you’re acting, you’re bringing a huge part of yourself into the role. So it’s going to be inherently different from what we’ve seen. It feels like a very different version than what we’ve seen before.”
As well as reportedly featuring in Avengers: Secret Wars, Sink’s Jean Grey is set to be part of the new X-Men reboot from Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier, and while the actress wouldn’t be drawn on recent casting reports like Heartstopper’s Kit Connor playing Scott Summers/Cyclops, she did tease progress on the casting front: “There’s also so many online rumors, but it’s coming together. I think the timing of it is so exciting, and the way they planned it out is really clever just with introducing one of the mutants, a very important mutant through Spider-Man. I think a great cast is coming together, and I think people are going to be really excited about it when it’s all announced.”
With regards to that cast, alongside Kit Connor as Cyclops, it has also been reported that Ready or Not star Samara Weaving will portray Emma Frost, while a host of names have been bandied around for various other roles. While unconfirmed, there’s growing expectation that Marvel may introduce its new team of mutant superheroes at Disney’s D23 Expo this coming weekend.
It’s a BRAND NEW DAY for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves – a powerful villain no one can even see. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Spider-Man: Brand New Day features a cast that includes Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark Ruffalo.
