Spider-Man: Brand New Day creator reveals real reason Jean Grey was the film’s main villain

When Sadie Sink was first announced for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, everyone immediately started guessing she’d be playing Jean Grey. They were right. But what surprised everyone even more was that Jean ended up being the film’s main antagonist.

Now, Spider-Man: Brand New Day producer Amy Pascal has revealed the real reason Marvel and Sony chose Jean for such a huge role. And actually, it had nothing to do with introducing the X-Men.

Speaking to Deadline, Pascal explained that the decision was all about Peter Parker’s emotional journey. It wasn’t about setting up Marvel’s mutant future.

“We knew we couldn’t go bigger than three Spider-Mans, so we had to go deeper with Peter Parker,” she said. “And the truth is that every time with my partner, Marvel’s Kevin Feige, and my producing partner Rachel O’Connor, we sit down to decide what the next movie should be. We always think about what the Peter Parker story should be. And it really is about focusing more on Peter than Spider-Man, which makes a good movie.”

‘We didn’t pick Jean Grey because she was part of the X-Men’

So, when asked whether Jean Grey was chosen because of her comic book history with Spider-Man and the X-Men, Pascal revealed that wasn’t actually the reason at all.

She said, “The comics are connected all the time between X-Men and everything else. We didn’t pick Jean Grey because she was part of the X-Men. We picked Jean Grey because Destin came in and said, ‘If you guys want to do a movie that is about the way people feel isolated, even more today than ever, because of our technology and everything else, and not just young people, but everybody. But it has afflicted young people so much.

“‘If we can do a movie that is about how reaching out and making a connection to someone is the most important thing that you can do, then I understand how to do this movie.'”

She continued, “And he was the one who said, ‘I really think it would be great if the villain could be a teenager,’ instead of all the monsters we’ve done in the past. ‘Because the other truth about Peter Parker is that the best stories are when the villains have the same problem that he does: Anonymity and feeling isolated.'”

“It just seemed like the right story to tell for today. Because it’s something that we can all relate to,” Pascal added.

‘We wanted a villain who reflected what he was going through’

Director Destin Daniel Cretton also recently said, “We wanted to get away from having a villain who just felt typical. Because this was really Peter Parker’s journey. We wanted a villain who reflected what he was going through.”

He added, “To us, both characters experienced very clear trauma and had loved ones taken from them. The difference is that Jean really had one person as her community, and that person was taken away. Peter, on the other hand, had a community that rallied around him after Aunt May was killed.”

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Featured image credit: Sony Pictures.