The secret is out, and it's exactly what everyone hoped for. Sadie Sink is playing Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Marvel kept that under wraps for months while the internet basically figured it out anyway. A two-second shot of a mystery figure in a green jacket from the March trailer was all fans needed. Red hair, green color palette, powerful mutant energy. The guessing was over before Marvel admitted anything.
The movie opened in theaters today and it is genuinely something. Tom Holland is back as a Peter Parker who exists in complete anonymity after Doctor Strange's spell wiped the world's memory of him. He's grinding full-time as Spider-Man while watching MJ and Ned build their lives at MIT without any memory of him. That setup has real weight to it, and the film leans into it harder than you'd expect from a Marvel blockbuster. Director Destin Daniel Cretton, who worked with Sink earlier in her career, takes the whole thing in a darker, more grounded direction than the previous Holland entries.
Sink's Jean Grey spends most of the movie functioning as the apparent villain, possessing bystanders and breaking into Department of Damage Control facilities, before the film flips the script and reveals the organization itself as the real threat. It's the kind of morally layered storytelling that makes you actually care about what happens. Jon Bernthal shows up as Frank Castle, and watching him and Holland's Spider-Man work together as an odd-couple team is every bit as fun as it sounds. Mark Ruffalo is also in the mix and the less you know about how his Hulk factors in, the better.
The audience is absolutely showing up. Brand New Day pulled in $72 million in Thursday previews alone, which is a new all-time record that tops what Avengers: Endgame did in 2019. The film is sitting at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 98% audience score, and the CinemaScore is an A. If you're planning to see this on opening weekend, go in knowing as little as possible. Director Cretton said himself that the film is a better experience the less you know going in, and he's right.
If you want to do some homework before you go, rewatch Spider-Man: No Way Home. Brand New Day picks up directly from that ending, and the emotional weight of Peter living completely alone hits a lot harder if you remember exactly what he gave up. This is the movie that story was always building toward.
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