On Mar. 12, 2025, it was announced that Stranger Things star Sadie Sink had joined the cast of the highly anticipated Spider-Man 4. This news was shocking because Sink was previously rumored to be Marvel Studios’ top choice to play Jean Grey in the MCU’s upcoming X-Men reboot. It isn’t unheard of for an actor to be considered for one role only to end up with another, and there certainly is precedent for it between X-Men and Spider-Man properties, like in 2010 when Michael Fassbender was being eyed to play both Magneto in X-Men: First Class and Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man, with him accepting the former.
Yet the fact that the news of Sink’s casting for Spider-Man 4 did not mention a character and Sink’s previous status as the top contender to play Jean Grey might suggest big plans for the upcoming Spider-Man movie. While there are concerns that Spider-Man 4 won’t be able to reach the box office heights of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel Studios and Sony need a big pitch to make the next Spider-Man film not seem like a step down to general audiences. Spider-Man 4 might be a Spider-Man/X-Men team-up film and the beginning of Marvel’s long-term plans for the X-Men and mutants in the future of the MCU.
Spider-Man and X-Men’s History
While the characters that make up The Avengers, like Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, are household names and Marvel has turned heroes like Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and Ant-Man into blockbuster properties, this is a relatively new phenomenon in Marvel’s long history. These were some of Marvel’s lesser-known characters, at least to casual audiences. The Fantastic Four were the foundation that built the Marvel Universe, but the company’s most popular titles since the 1970s have been Spider-Man and the X-Men, with these two properties exploding in popularity during the 1990s.
Because of this, Spider-Man and the X-Men have a lot of history in the comics. 1981’s Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends featured Spider-Man living alongside founding X-Men member Iceman and the newly created series Firestar, who also has a prior history with the X-Men in the series. Both X-Men: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The Animated Series were the two most successful Marvel animated series of the 1990s, so the X-Men guest starred in the two-part Season 2 episode “The Mutant Agenda” and “Mutants Revenge” episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
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In the 2000s, Spider-Man and X-Men were the first titles of Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe due to the fact that both franchises had feature films out in theaters or on the horizon. With the Ultimate Universe updating both Spider-Man and the X-Men for a modern age, that meant restoring the franchises’ status as teen superheroes. Spider-Man not only had a friendship with Bobby Drake/Iceman but also became close with X-Men Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat. Spider-Man and Shadowcat eventually developed a romantic relationship. The Ultimate Universe also revealed that long-time Spider-Man supporting cast member Liz Allen was the series version of the mutant Firestar and that her long-lost father was the X-Men villain The Blob.
Insomniac Games made waves with their 2018 PS4 game, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and have since created their own Spider-Man franchise with 2020’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and 2023’s Spider-Man 2. Insomniac is working on another Marvel title, but it isn’t The Avengers of Fantastic Four or Daredevil related, but X-Men. Wolverine specifically, and not only will the Wolverine game include the title character, but Jean Grey will also be involved. Insomniac even featured a Wolverine-themed Spider-Man suit in Spider-Man 2, further linking the two properties to fans.
With Spider-Man and the X-Men having a long history in the comics as two of Marvel’s biggest properties before the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making Spider-Man 4 a crossover with the X-Men certainly makes a lot of sense.
The Clues Point to the X-Men Joining the MCU Sooner Than Expected
Rumors have been circulating for months now about Marvel Studios, particularly eying actors for key X-Men roles. In addition to Sink as Jean Grey, there was Harris Dickinson (Babygirl) and Jack Champion (Avatar: The Way of Water) for Cyclopes, Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) for Kitty Pryde, DeWanda Wise (Jurassic World: Dominion) as Storm, Margaret Qualley (The Substance) as Rogue, and recently Jessie Plemons for Beast. Yet that would be an early casting process for X-Men, whose solo MCU movie isn’t expected to arrive in either late 2027 or 2028 at the earliest.
Now, there is a good chance that all these casting rumors are just stories made by online scoopers to generate clicks and engagement. After all, there is no need to prove it because it is just a rumor, and if it doesn’t pan out, disproving the casting rumor can be difficult unless an actor says otherwise. It certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility for a fake story to come out about the MCU, including the “rumor” that Tom Cruise would appear as the Superior Iron Man in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. There was no shortage of Fantastic Four casting rumors that turned out to be false.
Yet, assuming Marvel is actively looking for actors to play the X-Men in the MCU, their feature film is at least two to three years out. If Marvel Studios is looking so soon, it could be for an upcoming MCU project. Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are already so crowded with names that bringing in a new X-Men team might be a little much. However, the X-Men could appear in Spider-Man 4.
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Part of the deal between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures is that, in exchange for allowing Spider-Man to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and appear in Disney-produced feature films, Sony Pictures is allowed to use Marvel Cinematic Universe characters in their Sony-produced Spider-Man films featuring Tom Holland. This is why every MCU Spider-Man film has featured a few MCU characters, from Tony Stark in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Talos, and Soren in Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Doctor Strange and Wong in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
While some might want to see Spider-Man on his own, Sony Pictures will take full advantage of the benefits of being connected to the MCU. Speculation has arisen about which Marvel character would appear in Spider-Man 4, with names like Shang-Chi, Captain Marvel, and Daredevil in the mix. The X-Men might be the right call, as the idea of Spider-Man 4 also being an X-Men movie, or at least the first tease of the X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before their feature film, is a way to make the upcoming Spider-Man film feel close to an event picture as Spider-Man: No Way Home was, and likely mitigate the downward box office that is bound to happen between the third and fourth MCU Spider-Man film.
What Factor Might Stop a Full X-Men Crossover?
And How Marvel Might Have a Way Around That
With the idea of Sink playing Jean Grey in Spider-Man 4, the film could be the backdoor intro for the X-Men into the MCU, similar to Captain America: Civil War introducing Black Panther and Spider-Man. However, there are a few factors that could prevent it. The obvious one is whether Marvel Studios wants to incorporate a key component of their upcoming cinematic plans in the solo film of a character they don’t entirely control the film rights to.
Even though the Spider-Man movies are certainly some of the biggest box office draws in the franchise, they also come with their fair share of rules and restrictions. It appears Sony Pictures has control over characters introduced in the MCU Spider-Man films. That partially comes down to those characters being the ones that Sony Pictures owns the film rights to because they are Spider-Man supporting characters. So far, Marvel has not introduced a non-Spider-Man-centric character into one of the feature films. All of the MCU additions have been established names.
This might rule out Sadie Sink playing Jean Grey since Marvel Studios might be waiting to introduce her in a proper X-Men movie to which they fully control the rights and distribution. However, the idea of a mutant appearing in Spider-Man 4 remains on the table. Sink could play the character Firestar, a mutant in the comics with ties to the X-Men but is commonly associated with Spider-Man due to her creation for Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. The film rights to Sunfire likely occupy a strange grey zone, where she could theoretically be considered both a Spider-Man and X-Men character, making her the ideal pick to tease Marvel’s future mutant plans and for a Sony-produced Spider-Man movie.
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Ever since Disney and Marvel Studios acquired the film rights to the X-Men, they have been planting the seeds of mutants across the Multiverse Saga, which will likely fully bloom in Phase 7 in whatever form it is called (The Mutant Saga? Dawn of X?). While projects like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Marvels, and Deadpool & Wolverine have featured multiverse variants of popular X-Men, the sacred timeline has teased their arrival with both Ms. Marvel and Namor being called mutants and the introduction of adamantium in Captain America: Brave New World.
Spider-Man 4 is one of the final projects in the Multiverse Saga, so after years of teases about mutants and the X-Men, it might finally pay off. Spider-Man 4 could be a live-action adaptation of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends with Peter Parker teaming up with the hero Firestar or a film where Spider-Man meets two teenagers with superpowers that turn out to be mutants with a mid-credit scene teasing the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters that would get audiences talking and hype for an X-Men movie, but either one is a strong pitch.
Even if Spider-Man 4 isn’t a big Spider-Man/X-Men crossover, the film could likely be another important setup in Marvel’s future mutant ambitions. It is easy to see how Spider-Man 4 could introduce a team of young X-Men, including Sink’s Jean Grey. It is also within the realm of possibility for Sink to be playing Firestar, another young hero like Spider-Man whose past hints at the X-Men’s arrival. For fans who grew up with Marvel in the 1990s and early 2000s, the idea of seeing Spider-Man and any X-Men share the screen felt like a dream that would never come true, but it now feels closer to reality than ever before. Spider-Man 4 will swing into theaters on July 31, 2026.
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