Is the MCU Positioning Sara Grey as Emma Frost’s Secret Identity?
Watching SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY six times in its first ten days does things to your brain. Did I like the film? Obviously. It’s easily a top 3 Spider-Man film IMO – and my favorite Spider-Man film since HOMECOMING. Like everyone has said, there were things that bumped me: Peter has no apparent job (though apologists say he is living off of his Stark inheritance – which frankly I like even less than being jobless), Peter is never seen attending classes or going to college, and of course – the Jean Grey thing.
But my most intriguing takeaway was sparked by the casting of Emma Frost last week. The confirmation that this character will have a place in the first MCU X-Men film made me think – could they be setting up Emma for a bigger arc than we’ve seen her play in previous films? She was a blink and you’ll miss it cameo in X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. She was a one-and-done supporting character in X-MEN FIRST CLASS (and barely remembered even by most hardcore comic podcasters that I’ve listened to over the past week). So why such an early announcement? And why is such a major actress – Samara Weaving – set to play her?
All roads lead me to this theory: could the MCU be setting the stage to have the true identity of their version of Emma Frost be Sara Grey? Now I get it. Maybe this is a stretch. Maybe it’s more than that. Maybe you even think this is a heretical take. But just hear me out. I have some ideas, so hang with me here.
ANALYZING THE MCU JEAN GREY – AND SPOILERS FOR BRAND NEW DAY AHEAD…
Let’s face it, the film has some definite departures from the comics in how it approaches setting up Jean Grey’s character and general moral choices. Sadie Sink’s performance as Jean is mostly excellent. But there are some very un-Jeannie like character choices from the writer and director. In the comics, Jean was the heart of the original X-Men team. She was caring, kind, she even made the original X-Men their iconic uniforms – and yes she suffered with control of her tremendous telekinetic and telepathic powers early on, but she internalized most of that punishment. In BRAND NEW DAY, Jean is reckless, egotistical, mean, and, by the end of the film, in all likelihood possibly responsible for multiple deaths.
She is ultimately the film’s hidden villain – something Marvel was very careful to hide in the trailers – and even in the film her identity is hidden until the second act. In the third act we discover that her character choices and vengeance may have been caused by “the real bad guy” aka Bill Metzger and the people at Damage Control captured and likely killed her sister, Sara Grey. Does that mean they are explainable – I guess – but does that mean that they are justifiable or even forgivable – likely not.
ANALYZING THE MCU SARA GREY
Sara Grey is a minor character in the comics, in most iterations she does not have any telepathic or mutant powers. And she has never really been responsible for Jean being inducted into a life of heroism or in this case – vigilantism. Instead she’s an older sister that becomes a tragic figure, disconnected from Jean’s new life, after the onset of Jean’s powers (usually at the hands of a car accident that Jean witnessed). Instead of training her sister, in the comics, Sara Grey desperately yearns for her sister to return to her pre-mutat onset when the two were best friends.
Played by Olivia Booth-Ford (in a very effective compact performance), and only seen through Jean’s memories, and all in the third act – Sara Grey is also departure from her comic origins in BRAND NEW DAY. The flashback centers upon Sara and Jean in a park somewhere in presumably New York. Sara is teaching Jean how to telepathically control people, and we learn four important things:
- Sara is a telepath like Jean – a bit further along in the use of her power.
- Sara strongly dislikes her mother and blames her for a lot of her and Jean’s apparent hardships – abandoning them to instead be assigned to foster home to foster home.
- That abandonment has caused Sara to develop a cynical disposition in the world and a recklessness in the use of her powers that has presumably put her on Damage Control’s map prior to the abduction later in the scene.
- It has presumably been months if not years since this flashback (I think the latter as Jean looks noticeably younger in the flashback).
The series of flashback scenes ends with Sara being abducted by Bill Metzger and the agents of Damage Control.
Watching the film yet again, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the MCU might be setting up these extant versions of Jean Grey and Sara Grey for a very specific reason. Think Cap and Bucky, think Nat and Yelena. We never see Sara’s body. Even Metzger refers to Sara’s “sacrific”e rather obliquely and Jean assumes she died in the chair on what Metzger’s associate refers to as “that day”. The MCU loves reuniting long lost relatives or best friends – especially ones that we thought were long since dead or lost – and they love reuniting them on the opposite ends of a conflict.
So could the MCU be setting the stage to have the true identity of their version of Emma Frost be Sara Grey? Let’s think about some possibilities:
- Could Sara have escaped Damage Control and be using the name Emma Frost as her alias? Could Sara have had a mental break after escaping Damage Control and now go by Emma Frost, remembering only her emotional and not actual history after DC’s experimentation?
- Could Sara have altered Jean’s memory of her (remember Sara possessed Jean in her last act before being abducted by Damage Control) so she would not know exactly who to look for if she escaped?
- Could Sara have forced her consciousness into the mind of another person and be living there permanently?
These are all options.
But most importantly, my theory is that by doing this, the MCU will not only be setting up a rivalry but also positioning Emma Frost as a character that will ultimately challenge, sharpen, and redeem Jean Grey when their shared history is revealed.
THEMATIC SIMILARITIES – HOW SARA GREY AS EMMA FROST AUGMENTS JEAN GREY’S ARC
In this theory, the biggest hurdle is that Sara somehow escaped Damage Control and did not die. Jean sees a series of clues in her “cell” in Damage Control. Jean clocks Sara’s scrunchie in the cell and also that V-Max, a phrase that Sara psionically communicated to Jean, was the logo on the air vent – seemingly seen over and over again during forced experimentation by Damage Control. Jean assumes this was Sara’s last thought before she died in Damage Control’s custody. Bill Metzger does not dispute this – and arguably even leads Jean to believe this – calling her actions “a sacrifice”. Knowing Bill’s duplicitous motivations, why would he want Jean to know Sara escaped. The truth is he would not. And presumably Sara would not want Jean to know either so that she could keep her safe.
In the comics, Emma Frost is presented as someone who went through periods of mental abuse and manipulation by her parents and especially her father. She grew into someone distrustful of those around her – using her powers as protection and force. But she also manipulated people and is generally distrusting of the human race. This lines up well with Sara Grey’s feelings about her mother. And unlike Jean, this version of Sara Grey/Emma Frost would not have a Spider-Man to intervene in her life, and instead her experience with her mother combined with her experience with Damage Control would send her on a path similar to Emma Frost in the comics where her past manifested in her making choices that were individualistic, objectivist and that align her with traditional mutant “villains”, people like Sebastian Shaw, Mr. Sinister and Magneto. So I think Emma’s comics history fits really well with the Sara Grey of Brand New Day.
Now in the comics, Jean and Scott Summers are often times placed at odds with Emma, where they try to recruit her, and where each person asks the other side for help. This culminates in Emma and Scott having an affair and eventually marrying after Jean dies in the comics. And I think this rivalry for Scott will only be augmented again if it is Jean and Sara both vying for him.
Further, If Emma tries to recruit Jean or vice versa, Sara could use their shared history and experience as sisters once this fact is revealed. Considering Jean’s morally corrupt choices in BRAND NEW DAY, choices that felt more like a villain, Emma would be able to call Jean out – something that I am betting Marvel knows and a big reason why Jean makes such poor character choices in Brand New Day.
Jean could argue that she is the better person. Emma/Sara will ask – “are you really?” As her sister’s criticism digs deeper, this will push Jean further towards the X-Men, to being the Jean Grey that most comic readers know – as she tries to deny her past and her poor choices as a response to her sister’s criticism.
Now let’s take a look at some more superficial details that make the two characters fit well if merged.
POWER SIMILARITIES – EMMA FROST AND MCU SARA GREY
At the time of her abduction, we know that Sara Grey can possess people and hop between consciousnesses. And from her conversation with Jean, we also know that Sara thinks that one day she’ll be able to possess all the people in the park at once.
Emma Frost is famously an Omega-Class telepath in the comics, wielding an arsenal of vast psionic powers. She can effortlessly sift through minds or broadcast her own thoughts to anyone within a roughly 20-mile radius. Much like Sara Grey’s demonstrated potential, Frost can psionically manipulate the consciousness of others—masking her own presence to appear invisible or projecting complex illusions directly into their psyche. She is also capable of firing psionic force bolts; while these lack a physical impact, they strike the victim’s mind to induce agonizing pain or instant unconsciousness. By simply touching a target’s brow, Emma can trigger mental suffering, temporary paralysis, or even wipe away specific memories and cause total amnesia. While she can influence a multitude of minds at close range for simpler tasks, she can only truly possess another person’s mind one at a time, requiring her to be in their immediate physical presence.
So this would line up nicely with Jean in that Sara never really was able to manipulate multiple people at the same time (something Jean does in BRAND NEW DAY) but is much better at manipulating the brain of those she inhabits – which lines up nicely with my theory that Sara may have manipulated Jean’s memories upon her abduction – possibly even making her remember her differently.
Finally, if Jean’s power evolved under the stress of Damage Control testing, Sara’s might have also, but what if she evolved to have bullet proof skin which also gives her augmented strength – and what if…
What if the V-Max moment was the moment that Sara transformed into diamond for the first time and figuratively transformed into Emma Frost for the first time?
What if the V-Max moment was Sara Grey’s escape and not her death?
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SIMILARITIES – EMMA FROST AND MCU SARA GREY
Emma is blonde and very beautiful. This version of the MCU Sara Grey could very well grow into someone who looks like Samara Weaving or Emma Frost in the comics.
In some continuities Emma Frost’s beauty is revealed to be artificially created through cosmetic surgery. Again, this would be something that lines up well for the MCU Sara Grey. I don’t think it’s crazy to think that Olivia Booth-Forde (the actress who plays Emma Frost) would grow into Samara Weaving.
But I also think there is an argument that the flashbacks that we see in BRAND NEW DAY take place years before the actual action of BRAND NEW DAY. And if we don’t see Jean recognize Emma immediately (and I don’t think we would – heck it might even take two or three movies before this reveal) and if it is not because of manipulated memories, it could be because of plastic surgery – or maybe even a combination of both.
IN CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I think we can see there are a plethora of reasons and ways that Sara Grey could become the MCU’s Emma Frost, subsequent to the events of BRAND NEW DAY. Whether it is thematic, power-based, or physical similarities there are a lot of reasons why this would be plausible and also augment the rivalry already present between Jean Grey and Emma Frost.
What do you think? Is this crazy? Could it work? Leave your comments and thoughts below – I would love to read them. Thanks!
No Scoops Club 