Spider-Man: Brand New Day Writers Insist That, 'Technically,' Jean Grey Didn't Kill Anyone — or So We Should Believe
Spider-Man: Brand New Day screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have stated that Jean Grey did not actually kill anyone during the movie — "technically," at least.
Since the film's launch, fans have been debating the final act redemption of Sadie Sink's mutant, who is ultimately revealed to be searching for her sister. It's a tragic story, and one that's meant to leave audiences empathizing with the X-Men character. But... what about all those people she killed while terrorizing New York?
Well, according to the film's screenwriters, Jean Grey did not actually kill anyone while terrorizing New York. Not the guy she made walk in front of a bus, or the guy left stuck on a crane, and definitely not anyone in the building that she blew up.
"I think technically, she's not responsible for any deaths," Erik Sommers told The Hollywood Reporter. "But you come away with the impression, certainly, that she's caused a lot of destruction [and] mayhem."
While you don't actually see anyone Jean Grey controls definitively die on screen, fans have certainly noted the level of violence on display from a character who ultimately is meant to be sympathetic.
"I audibly gasped when that poor man was made to step into oncoming traffic," one fan wrote in a lengthy reddit thread discussing Jean Grey's violent tendencies. "I looked around the cinema to see if anyone saw what I just saw, but to my surprise the scene just went on and it was not addressed at any other point. Did he die? Did he survive? That felt really dark and unnecessary especially without any resolution or closure."
But Sommers has argued that Jean Grey needed to have that level of threat attached to her character in order to "feel formidable," and be a believable enough villain that could carry the movie and make the Department of Damage Control — at least initially — seem justified in their actions.
"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," Sommers continued. "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."
"What we were really excited about was this villain got to be a mystery for so long in the movie," Sommers' fellow co-writer Chris McKenna added. "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."
Other fans have dismissed the hand-wringing over Jean Grey's (definitely not) murderous tendencies as simply by-the-by, considering the antics of other Marvel heroes in the movie such as Yelena and Frank.
"Peter's best friend in this movie is an insane psychopath who casually kills people," countered another fan. "Peter's contact in the New Avengers is a trained assassin. Peter spent the entire last movie trying to redeem murderous criminals from themselves just because he thought that if they were going to die, at least they could die as good guys." Point taken.
Of course, Sadie Sink has a big future ahead of her in the MCU, with an X-Men movie reboot now in pre-production and an expectation among Marvel fans that we'll see her again even sooner, likely in 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars. Maybe Jean Grey will have calmed down a bit by then?
Image credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social