Why Sadie Sink’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Way” Role Has Been Kept a Secret
It was five years ago in the build-up to Spider-Man: No Way Home that Sony Pictures attempted to pull off a secrecy coup of the ages. It was a coup of omission, an attempt to keep it a secret that the two previous Peter Parkers, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire, were in the film. It was a game effort, but ultimately the news leaked. It didn’t put a dent in the film’s success, however, or the thrill of seeing the three Peter Parkers side-by-side-by-side, fighting together to keep New York City safe. Now, as we approach the July 31 release date for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a somewhat similar approach has been taken with Sadie Sink, whose involvement we do know about, but it’s in what capacity that Sony and the Spider-Man team have kept mum about.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton says this is more than just a clever marketing ploy to add a little mystery to the Stranger Things star’s involvement. (Much of the speculation has been that Sink will play a younger version of X-Men stalwart Jean Grey.) Cretton first got attached to Brand New Day because he identified with the themes that Marvel boss Kevin Feige and Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal said they intended to explore in the fourth installment of the Tom Holland-led franchise.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Cretton said that he, Feige, and Pascal began discussing the possibilities for the fourth installment. “After talking to Kevin Feige a little bit about it, I met with [Spider-Man producer] Amy Pascal. They were looking for a [more grounded] story that was going to explore some of the deeper issues that Peter might be going through during this time of isolation. I really gravitated toward exploring a character who is, by every sense of the word, completely alone. The character hasn’t really experienced this before in his life. I’ve been through those stages. And I think it’s a subject that a lot of people will relate to right now.”
The main reason for Brand New Day’s more grounded, deeper approach to Peter’s problems is what happened in the last film, No Way Home. That film ended with Peter having to make a brutal sacrifice; to protect the people he loved, he had to erase every memory of his existence from their minds. This was necessary because of a major mistake Peter had made—he unleashed the multiverse, including Spider-Men from other universes (Garfield and Maguire), all of whom banded together to take on iconic villains from previous Spider-Man eras/universes, including Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock and Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. Now, in Brand New Day, Peter must navigate his superhero responsibilities in New York City without the support of the people he needs the most, MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), as well as Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), whom he lost during the battles in No Way Home.
Brand New Day is set four years after those traumatic events, and Peter is keeping tabs on MJ and Ned via their social media accounts, a form of torture considering the MIT grads are doing great and have moved back to New York to share an apartment and start their professional careers. Eventually, Peter comes into contact with them and feels the ache of being a stranger in their eyes. Ouch.
Which brings us back to Sink. Here we are, five years later, and the Spider-Man team seems to have managed what they tried to pull off the last time around, albeit with the slightly easier task of keeping a role secret rather than two very famous actors’ involvement. Cretton told THR this isn’t about trying to redo what the No Way Home team was attempting; rather, it’s germane to the story they’re telling now.
“I don’t think there’s any way of trying to emulate the last movie. In terms of stakes, you can’t really go bigger than that last movie,” Cretton told THR. “So rather than trying to go bigger, we were hoping to go deeper in a different way. Keeping what Sadie’s doing under wraps, you’ll honestly understand when you see the movie. The movie is a better movie if you don’t know certain things. I wish people didn’t know anything when they go in to watch this movie, but we’re not doing it for any other reason but to protect the experience of the fans. And whoever goes on opening weekend, you are going to have a much cooler experience if you go in not knowing certain things.”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s cast also includes Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Tramell Tillman as Bill, leader of the Department of Damage Control, and Michael Mando as Mac Gargan/Scorpion.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31.
Featured image: STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things: Season 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025
