The evidence pointing toward Sink portraying Jean Grey has been accumulating steadily since her casting announcement. Marvel Studios has been methodically expanding its mutant presence across Phase Six, and the Brand New Day trailer introduced Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), an anti-mutant agitator drawn directly from the comics, whose inclusion strongly implies that at least one prominent mutant is central to the plot. Sink’s red hair, which has been a defining visual trait throughout her career on Stranger Things, aligns with Jean Grey’s most recognizable physical characteristic. Multiple insiders have also pointed toward the character being a founding X-Man. Finally, the trailer contains repeated imagery of individuals being manipulated against their will, which some fans have connected to Jean’s telepathic abilities. Marvel Studios is historically incapable of keeping secrets of this magnitude contained, and the industry consensus has largely landed on Jean Grey as the answer. However, there is a Marvel villain whose story fits Brand New Day‘s narrative far better.
Who Is the Spider-Queen in Marvel Comics?
Image courtesy of Marvel Comics
Adriana Soria, the character known as the Queen, first appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 2 #15 in 2004. As a Marine with latent mutant genetics, she was secretly enrolled in Operation Crossroads, part of the same wartime super-soldier experimentation that produced Captain America. This specific government program exposed her unit to the radiation of nuclear weapons tests at the Bikini Atoll, a process that killed everyone but Sora. Instead, the radiation awakened her dormant abilities, and she was subsequently imprisoned for decades by the same government that created her. In the comics, Sora resurfaces in modern-day New York, where she has a fateful encounter with Peter Parker.
The Queen’s primary ability is a form of biokinetic telepathy that allows her to dominate any human carrying what the comics identify as the “insect gene,” an atavistic strand of DNA that connects roughly one-third of the global population to the point in evolutionary history where humans and insects diverged. Spider-Man, as a man whose entire biology was permanently altered by an arachnid, carries that gene in full concentration—yes, they do count arachnids together with insects for the Queen’s powers. The Queen can force her targets to act against their will at range, coordinate them as a hive, and deliver a mutagenic enzyme through direct contact that triggers a physical transformation in the recipient. Her other abilities include telekinesis, a devastating sonic scream, and the capacity to command any insect or arachnid on a continental scale.
The Queen Would Be Perfect for Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Image courtesy of Marvel Comics
The mind-control imagery embedded throughout the Brand New Day trailer has been attributed either to Jean Grey or Mr. Negative, whose corruption ability is well-documented in the source material. That reading is plausible, but the Queen’s version of biokinetic control is actually a closer thematic match for what the footage depicts. Where Mr. Negative’s corruption is typically expressed through a dramatic color inversion and a spiritual transformation, the Queen’s influence looks exactly like what the trailer shows: people moving as though their motor functions have been seized, their bodies acting against their conscious will.
It’s also worth noting that Wonder Man established that the Department of Damage Control has evolved from a cleanup agency into an organization that detains enhanced individuals in a Supermax prison and is willing to use powered people as assets for their operations. That institutional framework fits perfectly with the Queen’s comic origin, since she’s a woman with latent mutant abilities who was weaponized by her own government, survived conditions that were designed to test and potentially kill her, and emerged as something the government could no longer contain or control. A Queen who is evading the DODC could underline how Marvel Studios intends to use the agency as an overarching antagonist, without the risk of turning Jean Grey into a secondary character with no connection to the X-Men.
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures
The best argument for the Queen’s introduction is that the trailer teases that Peter is mutating. In fact, he appears to be developing organic webbing, a significant biological departure from the mechanical shooters he has used throughout the MCU. In the comics, that specific power upgrade was a direct consequence of the Queen’s mutagenic kiss. She forced the transformation as an act of biological possession, and Peter literally died and was reborn from a spider’s husk with new abilities before defeating her. Transplanting that mechanism into the MCU would justify Peter’s transformation.
We are not holding our breath, and Sadie Sink is most likely Jean Grey. Still, in a movie that will pit Spider-Man against Scorpion, a third party also connected to insects and arachnids would offer a thematic depth that just adding an X-Men wouldn’t. Especially before the original X-Men cast returns for Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel Studios could focus more on Spider-Man lore instead of using his movie as a launchpad to a whole different franchise.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is scheduled to swing into theaters on July 31st.
Who would you prefer Sadie Sink play in the MCU? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
