The following story contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
WHO IS SARA Grey? In the wake of discovering that Stranger Things actor Sadie Sink is playing the famed mutant and X-Man Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, this might be your immediate next question. Both Grey sisters play a key role in the events of Spider-Man’s latest Marvel Cinematic Universe outing, particularly in the movie’s third act when director Destin Daniel Cretton and writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers turn their gaze to the Grey girls.
You may be wondering where this story comes from. Jean Grey has been depicted in X-Men movies in the past, obviously, played by Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner in previous iterations. But we’ve never seen a Sara Grey before.
Sometimes Marvel creates brand-new characters out of whole cloth for their stories, but it turns out that Sara Grey has quite the history in Marvel comics lore. To help give a bit of context to the long and winding road that is her legacy and relationship to Jean, and why Cretton decided to include her in the film, here’s a full-on breakdown of her publication history and how it may have informed how she appears in Brand New Day.
What Is Sara Grey’s Origin Story in Marvel Comics?
Sara Grey in an early Marvel Comics depiction.
Sara Grey originally appeared in X-Men #136, written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne with art by John Byrne, colors by Bob Sharen, and inks by Terry Austin. A critical part of the famed Phoenix Saga, Sara is introduced when Jean, empowered by the Dark Phoenix, returns to her childhood home in the middle of the night and startles her family awake after invasively probing their minds.
Over time, other writers added more to Sara’s backstory, notably that she was Jean’s older sister who saw the early stages of Jean’s powers, without fully understanding what was happening. A particularly traumatic moment featured Jean feeling the death of her friend, which impacted her on a deeply psychological level. After that experience, Jean spent over a year in a hospital, until she returned home after Professor Xavier was able to help her.
As Jean continued on at Xavier’s school, Sara would go on to get married to a man named Paul Bailey, eventually giving birth to two twins named Joey and Galen. On a vacation at Shelter Island, Paul, Sara, Jean, and Scott Summers, Sara and Jean chatted more, with Jean eventually disclosing the depth and breadth of her abilities. In the way of this, Atlanteans under the command of the villainous Attuma captured Sara, eventually transforming Sara into an Atlantean of sorts. Jean, leveraging the power of the Phoenix, was able to turn Sara back, but the whole process was so traumatic that Jean ended up deciding to wipe her memories.
After Jean died by suicide while battling the continuing power of the Phoenix, the mind-wipe placed upon her began to fade, and Sara remembered her experience at the hands of Attuma. In the wake of this, Sara became a staunch defender of mutant rights. Jean, eventually reborn because this is comic books after all, sees Sara on television, remembers her, and eventually begins to seek out her family about her sudden rebirth. As she shows up to the house, however, a group of anti-mutant terrorists blows up the house with everyone inside, and Jean is caught in the explosion. While Jean survived, the whereabouts of both Sara and the rest of her family remained unclear—but they were all presumed dead.
But because this is a comic book, no one ever really dies (As Chris Claremont himself discussed in a piece for Men’s Health!), and it turns out that Sara was actually abducted and turned into a host for the Phalanx, a galactic artificial intelligence that’s kind of Marvel’s version of a Terminator. Jean is told Sara didn’t survive, and that her consciousness was uploaded into the Phalanx.
Sara in the Phoenix mini-series.
Sara eventually gets more of a backstory/retcon through Stephanie Phillips’ Phoenix miniseries. Phillips makes it so that Jean and Phoenix merge with reality itself, which allows for Jean to bend reality to her will. As such, Sara returns to life thanks to a subconscious thought from Jean. Phillips does another retcon that as Sara was being assimilated by the Phalanx, she actually was able to teleport herself to another planet. Her body lived on, and the Phalanx got a copy of her mind. On this planet, Elarunn-7, Sara begins to discover a latent mutant ability where she could unlock the potential of a person, basically allowing them to develop powers. As Jean wove herself into reality, Sara felt Jean’s presence and reached out to her, eventually reuniting the pair.
From there, things get even trippier as a bunch of the cosmic forces that control both the reality of the Marvel universe and the beings behind the Phoenix Force both wanted to eliminate Sara to preserve the fabric of reality. Without getting too inside baseball—because this is even some real navel-gazing/inside baseball stuff for comic book fans—the key takeaway is that Sara is allowed to live in order to help Jean balance the power of the Phoenix Force. Phillips’ Phoenix series concludes with the notion that both Jean and Sara can balance the scales. Jean, as the Phoenix, was life incarnate, while Sara functioned as a being known as the Beacon, who would function as a living embodiment of compassion.
As I said, comic books can get really wonky.
How Does Sara Grey figure into Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Sara’s story is much simpler in Brand New Day. As we learn from the flashback, both Sara (Olivia Booth-Ford) and Jean have similar mind-control abilities and, as such, are abandoned by their parents. Sara is kidnapped and subsequently dies at the hands of the Department of Damage Control as Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) tries to leverage Sara’s psychic powers for nefarious means.
It’s unclear if this is the last time we’ll see Sara in live-action form, but there is an X-Men film on the way with Sink, presumably, set as one of its leads, so never say never.
William Goodman is a freelancer writer, focused on all things pop culture, tech, gadgets, and style. He’s based in Washington, DC and his work can also be found at Robb Report, Complex, and GQ. He’s yet to meet a jacket or cardigan he didn’t love. In his free time, he’s probably on Twitter (@goodmanw) or at the movies.
