Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained — who does Sadie Sink play, how many post-credits scenes are there, and more on the new Marvel movie
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has finally swung into theaters worldwide — and I bet you’ve got questions about Tom Holland’s latest Marvel movie.
Haven’t seen it yet? Read my Spider-Man: Brand New Day review for a spoiler-light insight into the newly released film. Then, bookmark this page, go and see it, and come back to carry on reading this article, because I’m not kidding when I say full spoilers immediately follow for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Of course, if you have watched it, by all means scroll on — it’s worth the read, I promise!
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Does Sadie Sink play Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
Yes. One of the worst-kept secrets in Hollywood is finally confirmed about 70 minutes into Spider-Man 4: Sink is playing the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) version of iconic X-Men member Jean Grey.
It’s a reveal that’s been a long time coming. Sink was first rumored to appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day last March, so we’ve had to wait 16 months to learn which Marvel character she was actually playing.
Of course, there’s been all manner of speculation about the identity of her character, with everyone from Mayday Parker — aka Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson’s daughter in the comics — and Typhoid Mary to Firestar and Shathra mentioned as potential candidates.
Now that we know Sink is playing Grey, she’s a shoo-in to appear in Marvel’s new X-Men movie (more on this later). Her next outing as Jean Grey is expected to be in Avengers: Secret Wars, though, so we’ll see her again when that film arrives next December.
Who is the real villain in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
That’ll be William Metzger, aka the head of the Department of Damage Control (DoDC).
Metzger is played by Tramell Tillman, the Severance star signing on to appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day last August. It’s unclear when or where he’ll appear in the MCU next, but I have my suspicions about his next appearance, which I cover later in this article.
Anyway, Metzger is revealed to be the Marvel Phase 6 flick’s actual villain in its third act. Initially positioning himself and the DoDC as an ally of Spider-Man’s, we eventually learn that Metzger was the one who kidnapped, experimented on, and ultimately killed Jean’s older sister Sarah. A fellow telepath, Sarah was taken to the DoDC’s main testing facility on Staten Island, where she was used as a lab rat for the company’s investigations into new tech powered by superhuman abilities.
Of course, as soon as Spidey learns the truth, our friendly neighborhood hero sets out to rescue Jean, whom he naively helped the DoDC to capture earlier in Brand New Day. Little does Peter Parker know, though, that it could’ve been his last mission…
Does Peter Parker die in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
No, but he comes mightily close to losing his life.
After he infiltrates the DoDC’s Staten Island headquarters, Spidey uses his upgraded powers to defeat members of The Hand controlled by an antagonistic Jean — remember, she still thinks Spider-Man is the enemy at this point.
Eventually, Peter tracks down Jean, who’s holding Metzger hostage. Metzger tried to experiment on Jean as he did with Sarah, but the test not only goes awry, it unlocks Jean’s full powerset. No longer limited by the 33-foot radius that her telepathic abilities had, Jean utilizes her powers to paralyze a large part of New York’s human population, and threatens Peter that she’ll hurt them all — including his former girlfriend M.J. and best friend Ned, who are caught in her paralyzing telepathic wave — if he tries to stop her from enacting revenge on Metzger.
Being the good guy that he is, Peter manages to talk her down. He does so by allowing the souped-up Jean to enter his mind, where he shows her a very specific memory of Aunt May that helps Jean understand that, despite Sarah’s death, she’s not alone.
Happy ending, right? Not exactly. Like Spider-Man, Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, sprang into action when Jean used her upgraded powers on New York’s residents. Unable to reach DoDC HQ, he heads to a nearby rooftop outside of the impacted zone. There, he uses his marksmanship skills to take a shot at Jean with a heavy-duty sniper rifle.
Sensing the incoming bullet, Spidey shields Jean from the sniper round and is critically injured by it. As he bleeds out, Jean employs her powers to keep him alive before Frank races him to a nearby hospital to undergo life-saving surgery.
Some time later, Peter wakes from his coma. After a heart-to-heart — and some light banter — with an apologetic and remorseful Frank, Peter checks himself out of the hospital.
A crowd of dedicated Spider-Man fans, who’ve congregated outside the hospital to hold a vigil for his swift recovery, awaits him. Fortunately, Frank stays behind, dons the Spider-Man mask, and waves to the assembled crowd from Spidey’s hospital room, allowing a profoundly moved Peter to walk away without anyone knowing he’s the real wallcrawler.
Does Jean Grey make M.J. and Ned remember Peter Parker in Spider-Man 4?
No — she doesn’t need to, because the pair end up finding out that Peter is Spider-Man.
M.J. learns who he is when she discovers the note Peter had written back in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Meanwhile, Ned appears to remember Peter when the duo performs their secret handshake in Brand New Day‘s final scene. Ultimately, then, Jean’s possible intervention wasn’t necessary.
Which Marvel characters make a cameo in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
We already knew the vast majority of Spider-Man: Brand Day’s cast heading into the film, but the MCU’s latest movie has a couple of surprises up its sleeve.
For one, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova makes an unexpected yet scene-stealing cameo. Spider-Man meets her at a New York bathhouse to obtain information about the attack on the DoDC in the film’s first act. Later on, she appears once more when the eponymous hero starts to suspect Metzger isn’t all that he seems and seeks details on Jean’s sister Sarah.
The other big cameo is Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May. Peter’s surrogate mom, who died in No Way Home, appears by way of the memory I mentioned earlier in this article.
“But what about Daredevil?”, you might be asking. Given what happened in the final episode of Daredevil: Born Again season 2, some fans had expected Spidey to come across Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock and join forces to take on The Hand in Spider-Man 4‘s prison-set action sequence. Unfortunately, Cox doesn’t show up in Brand New Day, so the wait for a Daredevil and Spider-Man MCU team-up goes on.
Is there an end-credits scene in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
Yes. Right at the end of the film’s final credits, the Spidey Tracker — an app built by Ned Leeds to, well, track Spider-Man’s whereabouts — flashes up on the screen.
As an automated message that says “Location unknown” starts to play over and over, the app zooms out from planet Earth and eventually pinpoints that the webslinger is somehow in space.
What does this mean? I have a wild theory that Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s post-credits scene might not mean what we think it does, but the most likely scenario is that Peter Parker has been transported somewhere due to events that’ll go down in Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars. Speaking of which…
How does Spider-Man 4 set up Avengers: Doomsday and/or Avengers: Secret Wars?
In short: I don’t know. Spider-Man 4‘s end credits scene could be related to either of the aforementioned movies, so until Avengers: Doomsday is released this December, your guess is as good as mine.
That said, at this moment in time, Tom Holland isn’t slated to appear in Doomsday, and that film is already packed with enough characters as it is. You can find out who’ll appear and more by finding out everything we know so far about Avengers: Doomsday.
If Holland doesn’t show up in Avengers 5, he’ll be a dead cert to star in its sequel. Marvel and Sony won’t miss the opportunity to put one of their most bankable characters in at least one of the next two Avengers movies, so the smart money is on him having a substantial role to play in Avengers 6. For more on that flick, find out what we know so far about Avengers: Secret Wars.
How does Spider-Man: Brand New Day set up Marvel’s new X-Men movie?
It doesn’t. With Doomsday and Secret Wars set to be the next two MCU movies to hit theaters, that pair is far more likely to impact the MCU’s first mutant-based film.
Nevertheless, Spider-Man 4‘s final minutes do show Jean Grey traveling on a bus to an unknown location. Maybe she’s attempting to track down more of her fellow mutants? If she is and she’s successful, it’s possible that whoever she locates will not only have roles to play in Secret Wars, but also form a prototype version of the X-Men ahead of their actual founding/formation in their first dedicated MCU adventure.
While we wait for more news on one of the few confirmed post-Multiverse Saga projects, find out what we know so far about Marvel’s new X-Men movie.
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day has finally swung into theaters worldwide — and I bet you’ve got questions about Tom Holland’s latest Marvel movie. Haven’t seen it yet? Read my Spider-Man: Brand New Day review for a spoiler-light insight into the newly released film. Then, bookmark this page, go and see…
