Do The X-Men Exist In The MCU? ‘Spider-Man 4’ Suggests Not

Marvel Studios has been building out its cinematic universe for nearly 20 years now, but the franchise has yet to fully master the art of seamless worldbuilding. The bigger the MCU gets, the harder it gets to organically establish things that should have been there all along. After the 20th Century Fox merger of 2019, Marvel regained the film rights to the Fantastic Four and the X-Men — two of its absolute biggest properties — but integrating those teams into the MCU at large requires the use of clunky, confusing narrative devices, like the multiverse.

Even without the threat of incursions looming, there are still storylines native to Marvel’s “Sacred Timeline” that feel totally disconnected from the main universe, despite most taking place within New York City limits. And it also doesn’t help that the studio is also doubling down on its aversion to origin stories. That’s created an even more annoying habit: that of the “Human MacGuffin.” Nearly every Marvel story, from Doctor Strange 2 to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, has introduced a new, powerful character as a kind of mystery box torn between recognizable heroes and the villains chasing them for one reason or another.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day finds itself at the crux of these three issues. That should be a curse for a franchise that has never truly belonged to its titular hero — but director Destin Daniel Cretton does the best that he can with the lot he’s been given, and it’s enough to make this the best Spider-Man film within the MCU. It also takes a character most associate with an iconic Marvel team and cleverly uses them to serve Peter’s story, rather than set up a storyline we’ve all been waiting for.

Spoilers ahead for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Jean Grey — the MCU’s latest mutant

Brand New Day’s duties to the larger universe are clear with the introduction of a powerful telepath. Sadie Sink is a mostly unfamiliar version of Jean Grey: rather than starting her MCU journey with the X-Men, she’s a rogue agent, terrorizing the Department of Damage Control after it abducted and experimented on her older sister. DODC boss Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) is almost fashioned into the MCU’s William Stryker: Metzger does exist in Marvel Comics, but it’s Stryker who’s best known for experimenting on mutants. In Brand New Day, he’s targeting telepaths to create stronger weapons for the DODC, and Jean’s power brings him even closer to a major breakthrough.

It’s hard to watch Jean undergo Metzger’s torturous experiments without thinking, “Where the hell are the X-Men?” Unfortunately, the very reason Metzger and the DODC can operate so recklessly, and without impunity, is because mutants are still pretty rare within the MCU. It’s clear that a pro-mutant figure like Charles Xavier hasn’t yet made himself known; most of the world probably has no idea that mutants exist, either. It’ll be interesting to see how something like that develops in a universe that already has plenty of enhanced superheroes running around — but that’s not an issue for Brand New Day to address.

In fact, in a sense, this isn’t a new MCU problem. Back in 2015, in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) were introduced into the MCU without any connection to the X-Men. Their roles in the MCU were a far cry from their origins in the comics: not only are the Maximoffs prominent X-Men, but they’re also the children of Magneto. Age of Ultron erased a lot of that heritage, a choice that ruffled plenty of feathers after Fox’s X-Men saga introduced a comic-accurate Pietro (Evan Peters) in 2014’s Days of Future Past. (WandaVision would poke fun at that dissonance later.)

Jean Grey, the new Wanda. Sort of

Ironically, Jean almost fulfills the same role in Brand New Day that Wanda does in both Age of Ultron and Doctor Strange 2. She’s completely on her own in Brand New Day, and that solitude is the very thing that makes her the villain of this tale. It’s only through connecting with Peter that she realizes she’s not actually alone: there are vulnerable people with superpowers all around her. Peter gives her a pep talk very similar to the one Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) gives to Wanda in Ultron, which effectively turned her from villain to Avenger.

Unfortunately, Jean doesn’t get the chance to join or form any super team — she was running from the DODC before the events of Brand New Day, and that’s doubly true after she suspends half the city within a psychic prison and tries to murder Metzger.

Unlike Wanda, though, Jean gets a happy ending of sorts. We last see her heading out of New York on a bus, finally at peace with her lot in life. Where she’s headed is a mystery, but maybe she’ll pass through Rochester — which notably serves as Xavier’s base of operations — and find a new family along the way.

Whatever her fate, this won’t be the last we’ll see of Jean. Brand New Day delivered the first part of Marvel’s sprawling plan for the X-Men, but we’ll have to wait to see how the rest of the pieces connect.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters.