Is Sadie Sink playing the mutant X-Man Jean Grey in Spider-Man 4, or is the red-headed Stranger Things star a red herring? Multiple outlets reported on Wednesday that Sink has been cast in an undisclosed but significant role in Marvel Studios and Sony’s followup to 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. The news coincidentally (or not?) comes after reports that Marvel eyed Sink for the role of telepath Jean Grey — originally Marvel Girl, and later known as the Phoenix — in the currently-casting X-Men reboot bringing the mutant team into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Of course, Sink’s casting ignited theories speculating who she might be playing. Would it be Jean Grey as rumored? Or Spider-Man’s amazing friend and fellow red-haired mutant Angelica Jones, a.k.a. Firestar? Or even an alternate version of Mary Jane Watson? (There are rumors that Spider-Man 4, which is positioned between 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, is also a multiverse movie.)
Zendaya has played Michelle “MJ” Jones since the start of the MCU Spider-Man trilogy in 2017, but it’s unclear if the star is poised to return in the fourquel after all memory of Peter Parker (Tom Holland) was erased by Doctor Strange’s multiverse-saving spell in No Way Home. If Sink is indeed playing the X-Men’s Jean Grey, the question becomes: Does she have history with Spider-Man?
Along Came a Spider
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The original X-Men — Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Iceman, and Jean Grey (then Marvel Girl) — encountered Spider-Man for the first time* in 1967’s classic X-Men #35 by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth. (Spider-Man previously made a brief cameo when he declined Beast and Iceman’s invitation to join the mutant team in X-Men #27.)
In a case of mistaken identity, the X-Men were led to believe that the wall-crawler was involved with the disappearance of Professor X. After a scuffle, Cyclops realized that the antagonized Spider-Man wasn’t the “Spider-Menace” they were looking for. (Despite the issue’s cover, Jean was the only X-Man not to engage Spider-Man in battle.)
Mark of the Mutants
When Spider-Man was accused of kidnapping a scientist who was also an old colleague of Professor Xavier, he sent the X-Men — Jean, Cyclops, Angel, and Iceman — to track down the web-slinger in 1972’s Marvel Team-Up #4. The uncostumed X-Men met their match, but their brief fight ended when Jean used her telepathic powers to restrain the wrongfully accused Spider-Man by mentally freezing him in place.
Professor X discovered that Spider-Man was dying from toxins in his blood following his most recent encounter with the living vampire Morbius, so the X-Men tracked down the villainous vampire to rescue the scientist and save Spider-Man. Once cured, Spider-Man thanked Jean with a kiss as she had used her mind-probing powers to find the scientist.
The Fury of X-Factor
After the five original X-Men reunited and posed as the mutant deterrent agency called X-Factor to secretly locate and train mutants, The Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson hired X-Factor to capture suspected mutant and menace to society Spider-Man.
The black-suited Spider-Man battled X-Factor/the “X-Terminators” in 1986’s Amazing Spider-Man #282, where Jean ensnared Spider-Man in a telekinetic cocoon. When an attack from Angel sent Spider-Man toppling into Jean, knocking her over the edge of a rooftop, Spider-Man left himself open to attack when he used the last of his strength to shoot a web strand that saved Jean before promptly passing out. (Unbeknownst to the hero, Jean was capable of telekinetically saving herself.) Rather than turn Spider-Man over to Jameson, X-Factor returned Jameson’s retainer and told the anti-vigilante crusader that Spider-Man is, in fact, not a mutant.
Enter: The X-Men
* Spider-Man’s first meeting with the X-Men was retconned to take place in 1997’s Untold Tales of Spider-Man #21, set during Spider-Man’s early career between the pages of the classic Amazing Spider-Man comic run by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita Sr.
In an encounter that took place shortly after the X-Men’s public debut (their battle with Magneto at Cape Citadel in 1963’s X-Men #1), the villain Menace claimed to be a mutant supremacist and attacked an office building near the coffehouse where the uncostumed Spider-Man and X-Men happened to be in attendance.
Spider-Man arrived after the X-Men and mistook the colorfully-costumed teens for mutant terrorists. Instead of fighting, Spider-Man and the X-Men joined forces to stop Menace, who they proved to be an anti-mutant bigot out to frame “muties” as terrorists.
X-Men/Spider-Man
2008’s X-Men/Spider-Man #1 is another story set during Spider-Man and the X-Men’s early years, taking place after the events of 1965’s Amazing Spider-Man #34. Following Kraven the Hunter’s second failed attempt at capturing Spider-Man in that issue, Kraven announced he discovered Spider-Man was a mutant and would apprehend the mutant menace. The X-Men knew Spider-Man not to be a mutant, so they set out to find and warn Spider-Man before he could be targeted by their enemies, including the mutant-hunting Sentinels.
Kraven’s heightened senses tracked Spider-Man’s scent to Peter Parker’s hangout, the Coffee Bean, where Jean sensed Spider-Man’s approximate location. When Kraven and the Blob attacked the Coffee Bean to force his prey to show himself, Spider-Man joined the X-Men just as Kraven went after the most dangerous opponent first: Jean. With the battle won, Spider-Man again turned down an offer to join the X-Men at their school for gifted youngsters upstate.
The Spectacular X-Men
When the revenge-seeking Professor Power attacked the X-Men in 1992’s Spectacular Spider-Man #197, he (ahem) overpowered and abducted the X-Men: Cyclops, Beast, Archangel, and Iceman. Because Jean wasn’t present during Power’s attack, she was able to join Spider-Man when he tracked down the missing X-Men in Spectacular #198.
As Jean used her powers to telekinetically disrupt the electrified cage holding the X-Men prisoner, Spider-Man held off Power’s army of guards. Jean then used her telepathy to penetrate Power’s mind and end his crusade against Xavier’s former students, and the six heroes stopped Power’s floating castle from falling out of the sky in Spectacular #199. As they parted ways, Jean kissed Spider-Man’s masked cheek.
Spider-Man and the X-Men
In 2014’s six-issue series Spider-Man and the X-Men, Spider-Man joined the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning as a special class guidance counselor. (Wolverine, who was dead at the time and once Spider-Man’s teammate on the Avengers, requested the favor before his death.)
As the masked Mr. Spider-Man, he taught a class that included young mutants Ernst, Eye Boy, No-Girl, Glob Herman, Shark-Girl, Rockslide, and Hellion. During Spider-Man’s short-lived tenure at the Jean Grey School, he served alongside the new Marvel Girl — Rachel Grey, the displaced daughter of Jean Grey and Scott Summers from the Days of Future past timeline — and his old friend Iceman.
The Ultimate Mind Swap
Over in the Ultimate Universe, 2004’s Ultimate Spider-Man #66 opened with the X-Men’s Wolverine waking up in the body of high school student Peter Parker (and vice versa). As the mind-swapped Peter tried to get to the bottom of inexplicably being transferred into Logan’s adamantium-laced skeleton, Ultimate Spider-Man #67 revealed the culprit: Jean Grey.
As it turned out, Jean telepathically put Logan in the teenage Spider-Man’s body because he wouldn’t stop hitting on her. (Jean was also a teenager.) Jean pulled the Freaky Friday-esque mind swap because Spider-Man’s mind was the place it least wanted to be. Jean undid her mutant mind swap and explained she didn’t mean to involve Spider-Man… but maybe it was subconscious revenge for Spider-Man picturing her naked during their first meeting back in Ultimate Spider-Man #43. Mind readers!
