‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ almost had a major X-Men villain before Jean Grey
The version of ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ that eventually hit theaters was not the first idea for the movie’s villain, and according to writer Chris McKenna, the path to the final version of the story crossed at least two other characters before landing on Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey. McKenna recapped the process on the podcast ‘The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood,’ and the story he told began years ago with ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’ Turns out, he and co-writer Erik Sommers wanted to focus on Spot, only to lose the character to ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ mid-development. The same sort of rights issues followed them into ‘Brand New Day.’ McKenna noted they initially considered using Kraven the Hunter, including a version of the character in which the Hunter transformed New York City into a ‘Home Alone’ king trap for Peter Parker. Chameleon apparently also made someone’s shortlist before the arrival of Sony Pictures’ own ‘Kraven the Hunter’ movie, in which they wanted their own take on the story.
It was then that Shadow King crossed into their consideration, with McKenna describing the X-Men telepath first encountered by Charles Xavier as an appealing option for the film due to the sheer oddity it could bring to the production. The idea of a disembodied villain, whose physical body had been hidden away in New York City by those who saw the danger in his power, would essentially have Spider-Man chasing after a voice with no face to put it on. McKenna added that Marvel supposedly approved of using the character, so long as they did not use his Shadow King title or his comics name Amahl Farouk. So, they completed a draft that involved their own take on the story.
It apparently did not connect how they wanted. According to McKenna, a story centered around a disembodied antagonist eventually finds itself running up against its own limitations due to how much Spider-Man’s heart and soul go into every story he tackles, which requires him to have a tangible opponent to fight against. He finally received the call that would change everything’s direction in September 2024. “I got a call from the producer, and she said, ‘We got Jean Grey,’ “ he told The Bulwark. “It was like, ‘Oh, thank God.’”
Jean Grey’s eventual inclusion allowed McKenna and Sommers to retain the body-jumping concept from the discarded Shadow King script, while also giving them a physical antagonist to hold onto with an X-Men feel they were allowed to utilize. The final film takes its DNA from that idea, with Peter spending much of ‘Brand New Day’ chasing a mysterious figure who appears to jump from body to body, only for him to eventually discover that it is, in fact, Jean Grey the whole time. ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ premiered in theaters on July 31, and it became the first Spider-Man film to cross $2 billion worldwide, per Variety, finishing at roughly $2.02 billion worldwide, $785 million domestically and $1.23 billion overseas. It now joins the ‘Avatar,’ ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ ‘Titanic,’ and ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ films to clear the $2 billion mark.
