Spider-Man: Brand New Day Officially Introduces Another X-Men Character Amid Jean Grey Theories

Published Jun 22, 2026, 9:46 PM EDT

Dani Kessel Odom (they/them) is an autistic lead writer and TV critic who covers sci-fi shows like Doctor Who and Pluribus, fantasy shows like The Magicians and Percy Jackson, and horror of all kinds. They also cover Marvel and DC TV shows and movies, with a robust knowledge of comic books. Their TV reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.

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In university, they majored in English Writing with a minor in psychology. They have always had a passion for analyzing TV and movies, even taking filmography and scriptwriting classes in university. They also studied and participated in onstage and onscreen acting extensively from the ages of 7 to 18.

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Besides the webslinger himself, the trailer’s shining star is Bruce Banner, who transforms into the Savage Hulk for the first time in almost a decade. Obviously, we’re reintroduced to Ned and MJ as they are in college, four years after they forgot who Peter Parker was. Jon Bernthal’s Punisher appears. The minor Spider-Man villains Boomerang and Tarantula have a moment, though it’s easy to miss them. Scorpion is back and seemingly better than ever. Plus, the Hand is going after Peter in the trailer.

Other than Bruce Banner, these characters have little bearing on the X-Men’s possible involvement in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. However, others feel much more relevant to the conversation. The captions confirm that the agent from the Department of Damage Control talking to Spidey is none other than the X-Men villain Bill Metzger. Spider-Man is seen running from The Hand, who have a long-running feud with the X-Men and, more broadly, mutants. On top of that, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, they introduce Carlos Rodriguez, a human mutate member of the Y-Men gang.

Carlos Rodriguez's Introduction Sets Up The Y-Gang As Future Spider-Man Villain

When Peter visits Ned and MJ in Spider-Man: Brand New Day's second trailer, he sees Ned’s obsessive Spider-Man board. They show multiple glimpses that last less than a second. However, one newspaper clipping could be important to the Spider-Man trilogy. A reporter speculates that Carlos Rodriguez, a parkour social media influencer, could be Spider-Man. The name might not ring a bell because the character only appears in three comics: Young X-Men #3, #8, and #9. Rodriguez has powers, but he’s a mutate, not a mutant. Mutants are born with the X-gene and powers, while mutates lack the X-gene and get powers after birth.

Carlos Rodriguez is a member of the Y-Men gang. After getting into debt with the Y-Men, a mutant named Leon Nunez tattoos the members, imbuing them with powers that correlate to the designs. Rodriguez gets a bomb tattoo on his left fist and a shield on his right arm, giving him an explosive punch and the ability to create force fields. While Rodriguez is the only member of the gang shown, his introduction could very well lead to the Y-Gang going up against Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.

Since the Y-Gang is a local group with a limited scope, they would make sense as villains. After all, the Spider-Man trilogy will lean into the “friendly neighborhood” part of Spider-Man’s moniker. Additionally, it would give Spider-Man a stronger connection to the mutants of X-Men, should they choose to tie him back into the larger Avengers-level stories.

Brand New Day's Repeated X-Men References Make Jean Grey Appearance More Likely

The other reason why the Carlos Rodriguez reference is significant is that Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues to set up X-Men connections. Other than the basic premise of mutations, Peter Parker is designated as an “enhanced human” in the Department of Damage Control’s documents. This seems to be the MCU’s version of human mutate. The Department itself is a big deal in the X-Men world. What’s more, we now have Bill Metzger, Carlos Rodriguez, and the Hand connecting Spider-Man: Brand New Day to the X-Men.

There were decent reasons to suspect that Sadie Sink would play Jean Grey before this. She’s obviously the spitting image of the mutant. Plus, the descriptions of her character’s abilities match up with a powerful psychic who can use telepathic camouflage, an obscure Jean Grey power that’s rarely referenced in the comics. However, the fact that they continue to line up X-Men connections in Brand New Day makes the theory seem much more plausible than it did at the start. What's more, Bill Metzger and his goons are known for kidnapping Jean Grey in X-Men: Children of the Atom #5, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for that to happen in some form, onscreen.