on Google Preferred Source Google News Link copied to clipboard By Maria Loreto Published Aug 8, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT Analysis It might take a while for you to recognize this version of Jean
Robert Pattinson's bone-chilling 10/10 105-minute psychological thriller is officially a #1 streaming hit on HBO Max Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a gorgeous fighting game with Hulk-sized problems Dwayne Johnson’s $200 million sci-fi flop is officially a global streaming sleeper hit How Brand New Day’s Jean Grey sets the stage for an X-Men we've never seen before Image: Disney Sign in to your Polygon.com account The X-Men are here. After years of anticipation, the MCU has introduced its first X-Man into the primary timeline. Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues the story of Peter Parker (Tom Holland) after Doctor Strange erases his secret identity from the world’s memory. Yet the movie also doubles as an origin story for Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), presenting us with a version of her that’s unlike anything audiences have seen or read before.
Jean Grey is Brand New Day ’s villain. While it’s a surprising starting point for the character, villainy is in the makeup of Jean’s most emblematic storyline. What’s interesting is the MCU’s decision to lead with that first, breaking tradition with the character we’ve grown up reading about in comic books and watching in animated shows and live action movies. It’s a decision that sets the stage for an X-Men adaptation unlike any we’ve ever seen before. We often meet the X-Men as a fully-formed team recruited by Charles Xavier. They’re a group of superheroes with various powers who protect mutants and humans alike. But there are no X-Men in the MCU — there’s just (presumably) a bunch of scared kids with powers they don’t know what to do with yet.
Image: 20th Century Fox First, let’s take a look back at Jean’s cinematic history. Over the past two decades, Jean has been played by Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner in two separate trilogies. While of different ages, the Jean we’ve encountered is consistent: she’s a powerful telepath closely mentored by Xavier, with him suppressing the full range of her abilities to protect Jean from the trauma of her childhood.
[Spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow.]
Instead of exploring this across different movies, Brand New Day takes us to Jean’s most traumatic moment. As she hunts for her sister in New York, mind-hopping from person to person in search of clues, she ends up in the hands of the Department of Damage Control thanks to Spider-Man's intervention. While she’s being held captive and being tested on, Jean learns that her sister Sara (Olivia Booth-Ford) died in that same room. The trauma allows her to access a power she didn’t know she had.
Throughout the film, Jean has no moral compass, making her hosts walk into incoming traffic and jump off buildings. In one of the movie’s most memorable scenes, Jean takes over MJ’s (Zendaya) mind and kisses Peter. It’s a moment that Peter and the audience have been waiting for the past five years. It becomes his lowest point when it's revealed that MJ doesn't remember Peter at all, with Jean mocking him for believing in the redeeming power of true love’s kiss. The scene feels plucked right out of Jean’s Dark Phoenix era, where she’s known to manipulate and take advantage of her rivals’ biggest weaknesses.
That reverses the dramatic structure of nearly every previous Jean Grey adaptation. Traditionally, audiences meet Jea…