A new set video from the filming of Spider-Man: Brand New Day proves that Jean Grey's actions in the movie weren't as evil and terrorizing as many fans initially thought. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is finally playing in theaters, and it seems as though there is hardly anyone who hasn't already seen it. The fourth solo Spidey film in the MCU already passed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, and could very well become the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie of all time. While the movie is receiving a lot of praise from Marvel fans and general audiences, there are a few aspects that have been criticized, especially when it comes to Jean Grey.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day's main villain remained a mystery for a good portion of the film's runtime. It was established that the web-slinger was battling someone extremely powerful, but the person's identity wasn't fully confirmed until the middle of the movie. However, the villain turned out to be Sadie Sink's Jean Grey, who, in the comics, is an Omega-level Mutant.
Anyone who is familiar with Jean knows that she has a bit of a dark side, but a lot of fans have expressed disappointment that Brand New Day made Jean out to be a ruthless villain with seemingly no regard for human life.
For example, one of the most shocking moments of the entire movie came when Jean used her telekinesis to jump into a construction worker in the streets of New York. Jean used her powers throughout the movie to take control of countless people, but this one seemed especially sinister as, when she was finished using him, she simply made him walk out into the middle of traffic and get hit by a passing car.
The movie didn't explain what happened to the man at all. That specific scene included a shot where the man got hit, and the car was moving extremely fast. Essentially, it implied that the pedestrian was killed by the car. Obviously, this made a lot of fans uncomfortable, and led to many claiming that Jean was too evil in the movie, especially since she will return in the MCU as a hero and a member of the X-Men.
However, a new set video was recently released from the filming of Brand New Day that proved that the scene was entirely practical, and that the actor genuinely got hit by a car for the shot.
The actor, whose name is Charlton Jud, confirmed via X that the stunt was real, which indicates that Jean did not kill the pedestrian in the movie. If Jud actually got hit by a car on set (which the set video proves that he did), it was obviously moving slowly enough not to harm the actor at all.
Now, most likely, Marvel sped the footage up to make the car appear as though it was going faster. Still, the fact that the stunt was done practically likely means that the man didn't die in the movie, and, at worst, sustained some significant injuries.
Therefore, it seems as though Jean never actually killed the man or anyone else in the film, so she is not as evil as many claimed she was. Some of her villainous acts can't be defended (including making a man get hit by a car), but at least she did not kill anyone.
The full set video from Spider-Man: Brand New Day can be seen below:
Other Evil Acts Committed by Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Possessing Innocent People Leading to Their Potential Harm
As mentioned, one of Jean Grey's most prominent powers in Spider-Man: Brand New Day was her ability to use telekinesis in order to enter and control another person's body. For instance, Jean possessed countless people throughout the film, and some of them were entirely innocent. To make things worse, she put these people directly in harm's way.
For example, during the tank chase scene near the beginning of the movie, Jean possessed an elderly woman who was inside the tank. Considering the tank crashed and flipped into the Department of Damage Control prison facility, that woman could have easily been killed. Jean also possessed people who worked for the DODC as guards, and even made some people walk off of buildings. It could be argued that she knew Spider-Man would save them, but that doesn't make it any less evil, because she shouldn't have done that to them in the first place.
Dealing Damage With Superheroes and Supervillains
Another pretty horrible act that Jean committed in Brand New Day was using heroes and villains to get what she wanted. Specifically, Jean manipulated these individuals in ways that directly led to the city being damaged and people being put in danger.
The biggest example of this is Jean manipulating Bruce Banner into turning into the Hulk. When the savage version of Hulk comes out, no one is safe. In the movie, Hulk absolutely destroyed the building that they were in, and even fell to the ground while tons of bricks were attached to him. When everything hit the ground, it could have easily landed on people and killed them.
It is also worth noting that Jean possessed people like Punisher and Scorpion, and wreaked havoc on the city with them.
Property Damage to the DODC Building and Prison
As mentioned, throughout the movie, Jean caused millions and millions of dollars worth of property damage. Now, structural damage is fairly common in superhero movies, but most of the time, heroes avoid it at all costs. Only in dire circumstances do the heroes destroy property (unless you're talking about Superman in Man of Steel).
However, Jean completely wrecked the DODC building and the prison. She wanted to figure out what happened to her sister, so she simply didn't care if she was causing any damage or not, but doing something like that is more commonly associated with villains rather than heroes.
Kisses Peter While Controlling MJ
One of the more horrible things Jean did in Spider-Man: Brand New Day came during a scene that many fans likely enjoyed before they realized what was happening. At one point, Peter Parker found MJ and told her that she was in danger. After they swung away together and landed on a rooftop, MJ confessed that she remembered Peter and she kissed him.
However, this was actually Jean inside of Peter's head all along, so it wasn't MJ kissing him at all. Now, this was an extremely evil thing to do to Peter since Jean knew Peter's feelings about MJ. It devastated Peter, and Jean knew that.
However, it is really more awful from MJ's perspective. Although MJ and Peter were in love before MJ lost her memory of Peter, she didn't know who he was at that time, and she didn't choose to kiss him. Therefore, Jean crossed an extreme boundary and put MJ in a horrible position, because she did something with MJ's body that MJ herself wasn't aware of.
Fortunately, Peter did the right thing later on in the movie when he told her what happened, and Peter is not at fault because he genuinely thought he was talking to MJ. However, from Jean's perspective, it was an extremely evil thing to do, especially considering that after she made MJ kiss Peter, she walked MJ's body over the ledge on a rooftop, causing her to fall. She would have hit the ground and died if Peter hadn't caught her.
Holding NYC Hostage
During Brand New Day's climax, Jean was placed in the DODC facility so that they could run some tests on her. Eventually, she became so powerful and overrun with anger that she had a horrific outburst. As a result, a massive portion of New York City was essentially held hostage by Jean, as they were frozen in time and unable to physically move.
It is worth noting that Jean was seemingly ready to let all of the people within that bubble die. As mentioned, she was having an extreme emotional reaction, but she was still enough in her right mind to know what she was doing to everyone. Luckily, Peter was able to get through to her, and she let everyone go.
