Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Villain Was Almost A Much Different X-Men Character
by Devin Meenan · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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Spider-Man has one of the best, widest collections of super-enemies in American comic books. But nine (live-action) Spider-Man movies in, and most of the A-listers have already been used. The third Tom Holland-led film, "Spider-Man: No Way Home," chose to bring back five villains from the previous movies. Why risk a pale imitation of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin instead of getting the man himself?
That then created a lot of intrigue for who would be the big bad of Holland's "Spider-Man 4," which was ultimately titled "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." Personally, I was pulling for Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, but that was not to be. I don't think even the most seasoned Marvel fans, yours truly included, could've predicted it coming out of "No Way Home," but "Brand New Day" sees Spider-Man battling Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) of the X-Men, a hero (well, mostly) from a totally different corner of Marvel Comics. It's genuinely amazing that "Brand New Day" doesn't feel like only a backdoor pilot for Marvel Studios' "X-Men" reboot, but how in the heck did its writers select Jean of all characters?
Appearing on the "Bulwark Goes Hollywood" podcast with host Sonny Bunch, "Brand New Day" co-writer Chris McKenna both walked through how the movie's story came together and answered that Jean question. He even revealed that he and the other "Brand New Day" creatives considered using a different mutant.
Specifically, McKenna and co. once considered using The Shadow King/Amahl Farouk, a famed "X-Men" villain created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne (and featured in the underrated FX series "Legion," first played by Aubrey Plaza). A psychic parasite, the Shadow King possesses other mutants in order to control their powers, although later retcons have indicated Farouk himself is only the ancient Shadow King entity's latest host.
Who is the Shadow King in Marvel Comics, explained
Originally a one-off villain in "X-Men" #117 by Chris Claremont & John Byrne, Amahl Farouk was featured in an extended flashback sequence as Professor X recalls his past. During a trip to Cairo in his youth, Xavier made psychic contact with Farouk, then in power as a crime lord. Claremont is a noted fan of "Casablanca" (his 1988 run on "Wolverine" had Logan posing as the Madripoor saloon owner "Patch," styled after Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine), and the whole sequence evokes Morocco in "Casablanca."
But I'll tell you one thing "Casablanca" doesn't have, and that's a psychic duel in the astral realm. Xavier defeats Farouk, who falls over seemingly dead. "Amahl Farouk was the first evil mutant I'd ever met, the first who made me realize how truly deadly mutant powers could be in the wrong hands," Xavier muses in the present, saying that encounter helped inspire him to create the X-Men. Of course, the X-Men would eventually face his old foe, because that wasn't the end of Farouk's story.
Claremont revived Farouk for a "New Mutants" arc where he possesses the young telepath Karma/Xuân Cao Mạnh. The Shadow King also became the primary villain for the last stretch of Claremont's original "X-Men" run, known as "the Muir Island Saga." These later stories are where the "Shadow King" name comes from, along with the retcon that Farouk is more than just an evil telepath.
In "X-Men" #117, a young Ororo Munroe, not yet Storm, makes a cameo pickpocketing Charles. Some later "X-Men" stories have tied into this, as well as the Shadow King coveting Storm's body (not like that!), stating that while working as a thief to survive, Ororo was "mentored" by Farouk (à la Oliver Twist and Fagin).
Jean Grey replaced the Shadow King in Spider-Man: Brand New Day
According to Chris McKenna, the Shadow King's plot in "Brand New Day" would've involved searching for Amahl Farouk's body, hidden somewhere in New York City. He would talk to Spider-Man by possessing people. (McKenna cited "Die Hard with a Vengeance," where John McClane initially only communicates with the unseen Simon Gruber over phone calls, as the influence.)
But why even consider using an "X-Men" villain in a "Spider-Man" movie? McKenna explained the movie's villain choices were limited by Sony's Spider-Man Universe, with Kraven the Hunter and the Chameleon being off-limits due to them appearing in 2024's "Kraven the Hunter" film. But while the movie's creatives considered building a story around a shapeshifter like the Chameleon, McKenna told the Bulwark, they asked themselves if the villain could be telepathic instead. "Once you go down the telepathy route, you're in mutant territory," he added.
Featuring an "X-Men" character meant "Brand New Day" had to avoid stepping on Marvel Studios' toes. The movie is co-produced by Sony and Marvel, but the latter fully owns the mutant characters. According to McKenna, Marvel even requested the film's psychic villain not be called "Shadow King" or "Farouk." (At that point, why even bother using him?) But, for whatever reason (perhaps because of the opportunity to soft launch its "X-Men" reboot in a guaranteed mega-hit), Marvel Studios approved using Jean Grey around September 2024.
Knowing Jean was filling the Shadow King's planned role makes some pieces fit into place. In "Brand New Day," Jean's telepathy functions more like the Shadow King's as she leaps between people, making them puppets of her will and voice. It feels more like possession than simple mind control ... because that's what it was in an earlier version of the story.