Stranger Things Star Hints Everyone Is Wrong About New Marvel Character

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 25 seconds ago

Ever since it was announced that Sadie Sink would be playing a character in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, fans have been speculating that she might play a famous Marvel redhead like Firestar or Jean Grey. This is due, of course, to her Stranger Things character famously having red hair. However, in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, she implied that everybody’s speculation might be wrong for a simple reason: “A lot of people forget that hair color can change.”

Redhead Redemption

It’s a fairly straightforward statement, of course, but one that potentially detonates many of the most popular theories about who Sink might play. When everyone was assuming her character would have red hair, it was easy to theorize that she could be someone like Rachel Cole-Alves, who is a sidekick to the Punisher, himself one of the big character additions to Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But if we take Sink’s comment about hair color at face value, fan theorists must revise their theories because she could be playing literally any young woman in the extended Marvel comics universe.

The only other real clue we have is the recent confirmation that Sink’s mystery character will reappear in Avengers: Secret Wars, the show-stopping movie that promises to reset the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This implies that she won’t be a one-off hero or villain or even a random rival love interest. Instead, she needs to be playing someone who has, presumably, some connection to Spider-Man and is also important enough to pop up again in the biggest and most ambitious Marvel production to date.

Good Guys Love Bad Girls

There’s always a chance, then, that she will play a non-redheaded character who is important to Spider-Man’s lore, including Black Cat. This would give the MCU Spidey a Catwoman-type character who can be both hero and villain, sometimes at the same time. It would also give Peter Parker a new potential love interest, something that could be in the offing after Doctor Strange’s spell made everyone forget who Peter is, effectively destroying all of his previous relationships.

There are other iconic Spidey villains Sadie Sink could play, including Silver Sable. Personally, I’d love to see her play Spider-Gwen, which isn’t as crazy as you might think: there has been long-running fan speculation that Liza Colón-Zayas will be playing Miles Morales’ mother and that he may pop up in the movie. If that’s the case, then it might not be that much of a stretch that Sink could bring Miles’ fellow Into the Spider-Verse playmate Spider-Gwen into live-action.

Of course, some fans have a simpler and more cynical theory: that just because Sadie Sink said that “hair color can change,” that doesn’t mean that it did. In other words, she could still be playing an iconic redhead like Jean Grey and has simply been encouraged by Marvel to make statements like this in interviews to throw off the fandom. Considering that she’s rocking red hair in leaked set photos, it seems likely her character (whoever she is) will, indeed, be a redhead.

Leaving Us On Red

That doesn’t mean she’s going to be a familiar redhead, though. Some fans have interpreted her comments to Entertainment Weekly as meaning that a comic character’s hair color might change…i.e., just because the character is blonde or brunette in the comics doesn’t mean they can’t be a redhead in the MCU. A mild example of this can be seen in The Thunderbolts, where La Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine has a purple streak in her hair rather than a white streak because actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus didn’t like the character’s original look in the comics. 

Obviously, we won’t know for sure who Sadie Sink is playing until much closer to Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s release date, currently slated for July 31, 2026. Whoever she plays, they’ll be appearing again in Avengers: Secret Wars, indicating they have a major part to play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That movie will be very crowded, and winning over the skeptical MCU fandom may be very difficult…somehow, though, I suspect the Stranger Things star won’t have any trouble running up that hill.