Warning: Spoilers follow for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, now playing in theaters.
Kevin Feige finally said where Spider-Man: Brand New Day is really headed. He just stopped one word short of the title.
Fresh off a weekend that delivered the biggest opening weekend in box office history and a $927 million global start, the Marvel Studios boss gave a victory lap interview to Variety, where he addressed the two questions hanging over the weekend: why all the Sadie Sink secrecy, and what the ending actually sets up.
“It’s overwhelming, frankly, to find ourselves in this position on a Monday morning,” Feige said, as the trade notes he now owns the four biggest opening weekends ever recorded.
Why Marvel Kept Sadie Sink A Secret
Asked directly why Marvel guarded Sink’s character through the entire marketing campaign, Feige gave the most straightforward answer he has offered yet.
“It’s purely about creating the best possible opening weekend experience for the audience,” he said. “Sadie’s character is one that our fans know has immense significance within the Marvel Universe, and she plays a key role in the future of the MCU. I’m just happy that the secret is finally out and that Sadie can stop dodging the question.”
Read that phrasing again. Not a fun cameo. A key role in the future of the MCU, straight from the man drawing the map.
Sink spent more than a year deflecting the Jean Grey question at every junket, premiere, and talk show stop. Feige just confirmed the dodging was studio policy, engineered to protect opening weekend. Judging by the record books, it worked.
Update: Sadie Sink has confirmed she will be a part of X-Men.
The Stan Lee And Jack Kirby Clue
Then came the question about where Brand New Day takes the MCU, and Feige delivered the quote of the interview.
“For people who’ve seen Brand New Day, they know the storyline leads us into more Spider-Man films and into the future of the MCU,” he said. “And, I think we’re still in spoiler territory because the movie only just came out, but it leads into another very well-known Marvel franchise created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.”
Let’s do the math. Lee and Kirby created the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the Hulk, and Thor, and every one of those is already up and running in the MCU. The one Lee and Kirby creation Marvel Studios has never launched is the X-Men, the team the pair introduced back in 1963.
And Brand New Day ends with Jean Grey on a bus pointed at Westchester. Our full spoiler breakdown of the ending covers how she gets there.
Feige stopped one word short of saying X-Men. The movie already said it for him.
Also worth clocking: “more Spider-Man films,” plural. Feige tells Variety that Tom Holland has earned a “restful victory lap” before a potential Spider-Man 5, so Peter Parker’s corner of this universe is not going anywhere either.
The Stealth X-Men Launch Is Now Official
Regular readers know this was the plan all along.
Feige told Chinese media last month that the mutants sit at the center of everything after Secret Wars, part of a slate the studio has planned all the way into 2042. And just three days ago, Marvel handed the White Queen to Samara Weaving, the first official casting in Jake Schreier’s X-Men movie.
The Fox era mutants take their bow in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18. Sink’s Jean Grey is the first mutant of what comes next, and the D23 Showcase on August 14 is the obvious stage for the rest of the new roster.
Brand New Day was sold as a street-level Spider-Man story. Feige just put on the record what the ending made obvious: the biggest opening weekend of all time doubled as the X-Men launch, and Marvel designed it that way on purpose.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters. For everything on the movie, visit our Spider-Man: Brand New Day guide.
