Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga was widely influenced by Marvel Comics initial Ultimate Universe. While the studio famously doesn’t directly adapt anything from the comics–and more recently has prompted its creatives to stay away from them entirely in some instances–the characters that built the MCU shares more than just a passing resemblance with their Earth-1610 counterparts. As the studio prepares to move on from its Multiverse Saga and into the next phase in which it will introduce its own team of X-Men, the Ultimate Universe may once again provide some inspiration.
While the identity of Sadie Sink‘s Spider-Man: Brand New Day character remains unconfirmed by Marvel and Sony, social media insiders have begun indicating that the Stranger Things star will be portraying Earth-616’s Jean Grey. Though rumors have had Sink playing a half dozen different characters, industry insider Jeff “The In” Sneider first pegged Sink as a front runner to play Grey months before she was cast in the new Spidey film. Should that indeed be the case, it’s possible that this iteration of the character may have a little more in common with her Earth-1610 counterpart than with the original Marvel Girl.
Sink‘s character–whoever she ends up being–is clearly a bit of a street urchin who is certainly not on the right side of the law. That’s a far cry from Earth-616’s Jean; however, the original Ultimate Jean Grey, created by Mark Millar, had a little more of a difficult past before joining Charles Xavier’s team of mutant heroes.
Ultimate Jean was far more caustic and contemptuous than the original version and the early emergence of her tremendous powers resulted in her being committed to a psychiatric hospital. Tormented by visions of the Phoenix, Millar’s Jean was much more of a “tortured youth” and that seems to be the case with Sink’s character who, by the way, appeared to be dressed in Jean’s traditional green and yellow colors when she was seen on set.
Of course, with all the misinformation out there, it does seem as though nobody is quite sure who Sink is playing in the new film. But some things such her knowledge that Peter is Spidey and the shape-shifting abilities (Earth-1610’s Jean frequently invaded people’s minds and made them see her as someone other than who she was) do line up with the possibility.
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