The first Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer has finally arrived... and it really gave the Avengers: Doomsday casting livestream a run for its money with the whole launching-in-bite-size-clips-over-a-24 hour-span thing. Sure, it was pretty cool to see Jon Bernthal's Punisher and Peter reunite with MJ again... but the question remains: Who the heck is doing all of that mind control? Is that Jean Grey? Marvel released the official synopsis for the film, which does seem to point to mutant power at play...
Per an official Marvel press release: "Four years have passed since the events of No Way Home, and Peter is now an adult living entirely alone, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves. Crime-fighting in a New York that no longer knows his name, he’s devoted himself entirely to protecting his city — a full-time Spider-Man — but as the demands on him intensify, the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence, even as a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he has ever faced."
In the trailer, that powerful threat seems to be able to control minds and temporarily disable Spidey from using his powers... which are powers that Jean Grey does indeed possess. Because Sadie Sink was not featured in the trailer, at least not clearly featured, anyway (I do think that may her hands in that brief shot of a person tied to a chair), fans are convinced that she's playing Jean Grey, the Dark Phoenix version of Jean Grey, or Madelyne Pryor, who is Jean Grey's clone (and is featured in X-Men '97 season 1).
My own theory is that yes, Jean Grey, or another mutant with similar powers (as Kevin Feige did say we were finally entering into Marvel's mutant era), but I don't think she's being played by Sadie Sink... and I don't think that the yellow hood Sink is wearing in those behind-the-scenes photos is the same one in that brief shot just before the explosions. I think it's more likely that Sink is playing The Punisher's partner Rachel Cole (hence the camo pants and cargo boots Sink has been spotted in on set), and, perhaps more unlikely, that there was some truth to that X-Men writer saying that Famke Janssen was returning as Jean Grey... I feel like Charlie Day in that one meme with the red string everywhere.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters on July 31. In the meantime, get up to speed on the rest of Marvel Phase 6 with our guide to the other upcoming Marvel movies and shows.
