Sadie Sink’s Role in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” Unveiled After Year-Long Speculation

Tommy McArdleFri, July 31, 2026 at 4:27 PM UTC

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Sadie Sink at the Los Angeles premiere for Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 27, 2026Credit: Brianna Bryson/WireImage -

Sadie Sink’s new Spider-Man character is no longer a secret!

The Stranger Things star landed the mystery role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day after previously collaborating with director Destin Daniel Crettin for the 2017 movie The Glass Castle

Sink costars with Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Liza Colón-Zayas and Mark Ruffalo in the movie, in theaters now

Warning! Spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow.

Sadie Sink can finally breathe now that the secret behind her character in Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out.

Sink, 24, plays the antagonist in Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man solo film, which hit theaters Friday, July 31. The Stranger Things star was cast in the movie in a mystery role while filming the Netflix series’ fifth season, and early trailers didn’t feature her character — sparking fan theories that she might be Gwen Stacy (previously played by Bryce Dallas Howard in Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man 3 and Emma Stone in Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man films), Mayday Parker, or even X-Men characters like Rachel Summers or Jean Grey.

X-Men fans were on the money: Sink portrays Jean Grey, the mutant telepath originally played by Famke Janssen in Fox’s X-Men films and later by Sophie Turner in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix. In Brand New Day, Jean appears as a mysterious force who possesses several characters while attempting to infiltrate buildings owned by the Department of Damage Control, the government agency that tracks and investigates unknown super-powered individuals.

While Holland’s Peter Parker initially believes the possessor is trying to steal a dangerous government weapon and battles her, he ultimately discovers that Jean is a teenager desperate to reunite with her sister Sarah — another telepath who was kidnapped, experimented on by the Department of Damage Control, and presumed killed during those experiments.

Sadie Sink in Spider-Man: Brand New DayCredit: Sony

In the movie, Peter — the only character who can resist Jean’s mind control — becomes sympathetic to her after learning about Jean’s sister, even as Jean threatens to destroy a large portion of Manhattan in her rage. Peter is even hit by a bullet fired by Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle/Punisher that was aimed at Jean; as they begin to understand one another, Jean uses her abilities to keep him from dying.

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By the film’s end, Jean appears to ride away from New York City. It’s not yet clear when Marvel fans will next see Sink in the role, though Jean is often portrayed as a founding member of the X-Men. Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige confirmed in a July 2025 interview with CBR that Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier is working on a new X-Men project, and several actors from the 2000s X-Men films are reprising their roles for December’s Avengers: Doomsday.

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Sadie Sink promoting Spider-Man: Brand New Day in New York City on July 17, 2026Credit: Christopher Polk/Deadline/Getty

On July 1, Sink told Nylon that she was offered the Spider-Man role without auditioning because she previously worked with director Destin Daniel Cretton on the 2017 film The Glass Castle. “It was interesting stepping into that space and being a little bit of an outsider in that way, but [Holland] could not have been more welcoming, and just the whole crew in general,” she said.

At the movie’s Los Angeles premiere, the actress told PEOPLE she didn’t have trouble keeping the secret about her role. “I’m kind of a vault, so it wasn’t that hard,” she said. “I was mostly just so excited to join this universe. So I was fine with keeping a secret for a year and a half or however long it’s been. I mean, my family knew, my close friends knew, but yeah — just not the press.”

Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Liza Colón-Zayas and Mark Ruffalo, among others, also star in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in theaters now.

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