Sadie Sink’s role is finally revealed in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” And it’s a Marvel movie, so of course there’s a post-credits scene.
Spoiler alert! We’re discussing important plot points and the ending of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (in theaters now), so beware if you haven’t seen it yet.
Another member of the X-Men has entered the Marvel chat.
The cast and filmmakers of “Brand New Day” have kept the identity of Sadie Sink’s mystery character a secret leading up to the movie’s release. And now that the movie is out, we know that she’s playing one of the most intriguing – and most powerful – characters in the Marvel Comics universe.
Sink debuts as Jean Grey, a shadowy antagonist for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in director Destin Daniel Cretton’s new big-screen adventure. She’s a telepath able to hop into different people’s minds and control their bodies, using her abilities to exact revenge on the shady government agency Damage Control, but Jean runs into a roadblock when Spidey opposes her.
Of course, our hero Peter Parker has an abundance of problems, from girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and BFF Ned (Jacob Batalon) magically not remembering him (see: “Spider-Man: No Way Home”) to arachnid DNA taking over his body.
Let’s dig into how “Brand New Day” unfolds, who exactly this Jean Grey person is, and what’s up with that post-credits scene.
What happens in the ending of ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’?
Spidey confronts the teenage Jean, who mind-controls both the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Punisher (Jon Bernthal) in a fight against him during an attack on Damage Control headquarters. The masked hero pops a power-inhibitor gadget on Jean, allowing Damage Control honcho Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) to capture her. But then Spidey discovers the truth: Metzger tortured and killed Jean’s older sister Sara in an effort to weaponize her psychic powers. Jean finds a way to get her powers back, holding Metzger and most of New York City in a dangerous force field, until Spidey and Jean have a heartfelt psychic conversation in which he explains she’s not alone anymore.
But it’s not a completely happy ending for Peter Parker. MJ reads a letter where he says that he still loves her, even though she doesn’t remember him, and MJ explains she’s not that person: “I don’t love you. I don’t even know you,” she tells a heartbroken Peter. Still, by the end of the movie, he’s started to become friends again with MJ and a final scene with Ned hints that he still has some memories of his old friendship.
Who is Jean Grey, Sadie Sink’s character in the new ‘Spider-Man’ movie?
While Marvel is bringing back several characters and actors from the 2000s “X-Men” movies for “Avengers: Doomsday” (in theaters Dec. 18) – including James Marsden’s Cyclops and Patrick Stewart’s Professor X – Sink being cast as a young Jean Grey is likely the beginning of a new mutant team for Marvel’s upcoming X-Men movie directed by Jake Schreier (“Thunderbolts”).
In the comic books, Jean Grey is one of the founding members of the X-Men dating back to their 1963 launch. The telepathic character is one of the most popular in X-Men lore and has been central to many of the mutant group’s most iconic story lines over the years, especially “The Dark Phoenix Saga” in the ’80s where Jean was possessed by a powerful cosmic force. On screen, Famke Janssen played Jean in three “X-Men” films in the 2000s while Sophie Turner starred as the character in “X-Men: Apocalypse” and “Dark Phoenix” in the 2010s.
Does ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ have a post-credits scene?
Yep! After all the credits roll, you see the colorful screen of Ned’s Spidey Tracker, an app that Ned developed to show where Spider-Man is at any given time. The screen slowly pulls back from New York City and even Earth – with Ned’s chirpy voice saying “location unknown” over and over again – until it finally settles on a point in outer space.
It could be teasing two different things. One would be an appearance by Holland’s Spidey in “Avengers: Doomsday” later this year or “Secret Wars” next year, since the event movie will likely be on a cosmic scale a la “Avengers: Endgame.” Another interpretation could be that it’s hinting at the existence of an alien symbiote on its way to Earth. (Marvel nerds will remember that a piece of the Venom symbiote was left behind in a “Spider-Man: No Way Home” mid-credits scene.) Maybe Spider-Man meets an alien symbiote for the first time in one of the upcoming movies – which happened in the 1980s “Secret Wars” comic series, giving rise to Spidey’s black costume and many complications that came after it.
The only thing for certain are the words seen on screen at the very end of the movie: “Spider-Man will return.”