{"id":1147059,"date":"2026-08-13T23:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1147059\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T23:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:30:16","slug":"spider-man-brand-new-day-writers-respond-to-biggest-jean-grey-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1147059\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man: Brand New Day writers respond to biggest Jean Grey criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spider-Man: Brand New Day returning screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have addressed a major criticism about the character played by Sadie Sink, explaining why her version of Jean Grey starts off as a villain.<\/p>\n

The latest chapter in Tom Holland’s Peter Parker saga picks up four years after the events of No Way Home, as the webslinger battles a new enemy and reconnects with Ned (Jacob Batalon) and MJ (Zendaya), who have no memories of him. The telepathic menace he’s up against is revealed to be none other than X-Men character Jean Grey<\/a> after a cruel twist in which she takes over MJ’s consciousness and tricks Peter into a kiss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the new film has gone over the $1 billion mark at the box office, McKenna and Sommers, who have penned all previous Holland’s Spidey outings, have explained Jean needed to pose a real threat to Peter in order for the central conflict to be believable.<\/p>\n

\"sadie<\/p>\n

Jay Maidment\/\/Sony Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services UK 2026 \u2013 including Disney Plus, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV<\/a><\/strong>
<\/p>\n

“I think technically, she’s not responsible for any deaths. But you come away with the impression, certainly, that she’s caused a lot of destruction and mayhem,” Sommers told The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

“Even if you’re going to have a villain who really is redeemed at the end or goes through a transformation, you have to start them off in a place where they feel formidable. If it doesn’t feel like this is going to be someone who is a challenge to our hero, physically, emotionally, mentally, then you don’t really buy it.<\/p>\n

\"sadie<\/p>\n

Sony Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Spider-Man: Brand New Day is another terrific MCU outing with Tom Holland at his best<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“What we were really excited about was this villain got to be a mystery for so long in the movie,” McKenna added. <\/p>\n

“We were in Peter’s shoes. We were not putting the audience ahead of him, so he was reacting to everything, and we were with him reacting.”<\/p>\n

There might be a redeeming arc in store for Jean after she and Peter reach an understanding in Brand New Day’s emotional climax, with Sink expected to reprise the character in the upcoming, star-studded X-Men reboot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in cinemas now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new edition of Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Ariana Grande, is here! Buy Ariana Grande in newsagents or online<\/a>.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Reporter, Digital Spy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times<\/a> and Digital Spy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spider-Man: Brand New Day returning screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have addressed a major criticism about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1147060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3935],"tags":[215877,223044,226303,1380,311894,1331,77,258961,1330,3943,311893,291041,16,15],"class_list":["post-1147059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-collection-marvel","tag-collection-spider-man","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-fb691310-c176-42c3-9118-3a9d23e60cc6","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-movies","tag-shorttitle-spider-man-brand-new-day-writers-on-jean-grey-criticism","tag-sponsored-false","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117090808842411070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1147059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1147060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1147059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1147059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1147059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}