Sadie Sink calls joining the MCU “scary” as Spider-Man talk heats up
Stranger Things star Sadie Sink has opened up about joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe — so what was it like swapping Hawkins for superheroes?
On NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Sadie Sink dug into what it felt like to step into the Marvel machine as Jean Grey in Spider- Man: Brand New Day —and admitted the sheer scale of it rattled her a bit. Jean, a powerful telepathic mutant, marks a major swing for Sink as she jumps from Hawkins to the MCU.
“It's scary, joining such a big franchise, and they've been out of like 10 years that cast,”
Sink said the on-set reality matched the hype in her head, calling the Spider-Man world “surreal” to witness up close. Asked to pick her favorite web-slinger, she didn’t hesitate.
“Tom was the first Spider-Man I saw. Homecoming,” she said. “He is my favorite. He is just the best.”
For fans who met Sink as Max Mayfield across four seasons of Stranger Things, the leap to Marvel feels like a natural next move—just with a lot more spandex and world-building.
No audition required
At a press conference for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige said Sink didn’t audition for Jean Grey. That kind of straight offer is uncommon at Marvel, but there was history to go on.
Sink previously worked with director Destin Daniel Cretton on the 2017 drama The Glass Castle, a reunion that likely helped clarify what she could do with Jean.
Feige later told Entertainment Weekly that Marvel already had Peter Parker’s arc and the surrounding characters mapped out, and that Sink’s casting helped lock in “the idea of the character” she plays in the film.