Spider-Man: Brand New Day Writers Explain How Its 'Tragic' Revelation Was Almost Very Different - EXCLUSIVE
There’s a lot of tragedy in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but arguably one of the most gut-wrenching moments concerns Jean Grey.
In the movie, Jean is initially framed as the villain. And sure, she does do some pretty heinous stuff. But it soon becomes apparent that the line between good and evil isn’t as clear as Peter Parker first thought.
This all leads to a heartbreaking revelation that completely alters the course of Brand New Day. However, as revealed by the film's writers in an exclusive chat with JustWatch, this emotional moment could have looked a lot different. Before we go any further, please be advised that we’re swinging into spoiler territory, but if you can handle the heat, keep reading…
What Is The Big Revelation In Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
Jean’s destructive behaviour is all part of her pursuit to find her sister, Sara, who, like her, is a mutant. It is revealed through a flashback that Sara, who has the same ‘body-hopping’ powers as Jean, was taken by the Department of Damage Control.
In an off-screen moment, Jean received a telepathic message from Sara which included letters spelling out 'VMAX'. This is Jean’s driving force throughout the film, as she repeatedly tries to access the Department of Damage Control to uncover what VMAX means, believing it a crucial clue to find her sister.
However, when she is later kidnapped and experimented on by Damage Control, she discovers that VMAX is merely what is spelt in fading letters to identify the ceiling vents of the room she is held in. It then dawns on her that Sara was simply saying goodbye, and that was the last thing she saw before Damage Control’s torturous experimentation killed her.
What Did Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Writers Say?
When JustWatch journalist Maelle Beauget-Ulh spoke to Brand New Day writers Eric Sommers and Chris McKenna, the duo gave some context for how the scene came to be — and was almost very different.
McKenna said that the moment Jean realised what happened to her sister, “sitting there in the same place that her sister was tortured essentially to death by Damage Control,” was something the whole writers' team knew was going to be “a really horrifying revelation.”
“I think there were various versions of what that clue was that had led her there, you know, waking up and seeing that thing [...] had different names,” McKenna revealed.
“Pink snowflakes at one point, but it was going to be some banal thing that was used in the room [...] as part of the experimentation room that we just knew that it would be this horrifying revelation that her sister was dead that would lead to her emotional traumatic outburst that would then lead to her now leveling up as a mutant, as is so much the case in the in the mutant stories.”
He went on to highlight how, in the comics, the thing that gave Jean “her first emotional levelling up, the emergence of her powers” was seeing her childhood friend Annie Richardson die.
“So again, I think you know it was something that we as a team talked about [...] what was going to be the right revelation, right revelatory moment, and how powerful could we make it, and how tragic could it be?” he asked.
From watching the movie, I can confirm this: the moment was pretty damn tragic. It also seemed to be, like McKenna pointed out, something of an awakening for Jean. Marvel’s recent D23 panel revealed that, among others, Sadie Sink as Jean would be leading the MCU’s new X-Men reboot movie, which is set for a 2028 release.
By unlocking the full extent of her powers in the wake of her grief, it’s clear that Jean’s story is far from over. If anything, it has just begun.
