Spider-Man: Brand New Day Report Confirms the Biggest MCU X-Men Theory

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That’s not even the wildest part: There have been persistent rumors that Brand New Day is going to be the biggest launchpad for the MCU X-Men yet, with a lot of speculation that the role Stranger Things star Sadie Sink is playing in the film is X-Men’s Jean Grey/Phoenix. Now, today brings in a report about Spider-Man: Brand New Day that not only doesn’t debunk the X-Men theory, but actually tosses more gas on the fire!

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Will Reveal Damage Control’s Anti-Mutant Agenda

Tramell Tillman in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning / Paramount Pictures

One of the latest casting reports about Spider-Man: Brand New Day is that Severance star Tramell Tillman has joined the cast, and that he will be playing the obscure Marvel character William Metzger. In the comics, Metzger was an Anti-Mutant activist who was featured in the 1999-2000 Marvel miniseries X-Men: Children of the Atom. It was a retelling of the original X-Men’s experiences before coming together as a mutant team under the tutelage of Charles Xavier; William Metzger and his anti-mutant militia were the primary (human) antagonists of the miniseries.

The MCU is reportedly going to be doing a flip on Metzger wherein he is the head of the Damage Control organization, who still harbors the same kind of anti-mutant views. Metzger will be on the prowl for mutants, which raises the question of why he’s showing up in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. When rumors about Sink playing Jean Grey first surfaced, they came alongside story rumors stating that Brand New Day is both tying into the MCU Multiverse Saga, as well as setting up the next arc (which fans are already unofficially titling “The Mutant Saga”). The theory is that multiversal incursionsand the general collapse of realities onto one another spark the activation of X-genes in people of Earth-616 who have mutant variants in other realities – like Jean Grey.

As one of the most powerful psychics in the universe, Jean would arguably be affected by multiversal bleed-over earlier and worse than most; if Jean Grey of the 616 universe has Omega-level mutant powers suddenly manifest inside her, it would definitely be the kind of threat Damage Control would consider priority one. Other rumors about Brand New Day suggest that Peter Parker (Tom Holland) could be struggling with his own “Man-Spider” mutation (a deep cut from the comics) as a latent effect of the spider bite that gave him his powers. That Jekyll/Hyde dynamic would explain why Peter needs a character like Bruce Banner/Hulk to help him – and why a character like Jean Grey could either be the catalyst or cure if Peter’s mind goes savage.

Wonder Man Helps Prove The MCU Mutant Saga Is Coming

Marvel Studios – Disney+

Either way, there’s a lot of speculation that William Metzger will be a minor character in Brand New Day, who is meant to be a signal flare for what the MCU X-Men will be up against (Damage Control). The MCU has arguably already started building that foundation: Wonder Man never explicitly stated it, but the show never did deny it either that Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) could be a mutant. His family seemed to have always known about his powers, and Simon never described any “accident” or “experiment” that gave him those abilities. Damage Control invested a lot of effort trying to expose and detain Simon – if his mutant status was the reason, Wonder Man was a small taste of what’s to come. Spider-Man: Brand New Day could be a slightly bigger taste.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be released in theaters on July 31st. Discuss your theories with us over on the ComicBook Forum!