The world is talking about Jean Grey and the X-Men once again. Marvel's Mightiest Mutants have been a regular presence on the silver and small screens for decades now, bringing their complex, powerful stories off the page and introducing them to a much wider audience. And now, they are set to make their presence felt on the legendary Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Jean is quite possibly the most complex of all the X-Men - she has been ever since she made her Marvel Comics debut in 1963. She's capable of such love, with a big heart that beats for her relationships with Scott Summers (Cyclops), Logan (Wolverine), and all of her beloved friends and teammates. However, she's also burdened with the power of the Phoenix, which is hard to control and leads to the infamous Dark Phoenix storyline - something that has been adapted multiple times in the movies, to quite divisive results.
Speaking of the movies, we have seen Jean Grey adapted twice in live-action before, with Famke Janssen playing her in the original Fox X-Men trilogy, and Sophie Turner taking over in the prequel film series. Now, she's set to join the MCU as Marvel Studios looks to reboot the mutants for a whole new generation. And after laying the groundwork in films such as Ms. Marvel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the stage is set for the team - and Jean's - return.
But those ones weren't the only versions of Jean we've seen on the screen, so with that in mind, let's dive into the character's movie and TV history and find out who played her the best.
*** This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Don't read on if you would prefer that the movie wasn't spoiled for you. ***
6. Catherine Disher
Appeared in: X-Men: The Animated Series, Spider-Man: The Animated Series
X-Men: The Animated Series is widely considered to be one of the two definitive adaptations of Marvel's mightiest mutants (the other, of course, being the Fox film series). It's not surprising given the strength of writing and how well it adapted the source material. However, one of the aspects it struggled with was its portrayal of Jean Grey.
Jean is one of the X-Men's most powerful mutants and yet in the show it only scratched the surface of what she was capable of. One of the fans' biggest issues with the show was how she would almost always faint after using her powers, rendering her pretty ineffective as a hero. That being said, Catherine Disher gave everything she had to ensure that we believed in everything that happened (even if we didn't like it).
From her passionate tone to the loud, terrifying screams Jean would led out when overexerting herself, Disher delivered one of the most powerful performances on the show, and that's one of the many reasons fans longed for the character to get the spotlight she deserved. It would have been nice to hear her reprise the role in X-Men '97 for that reason alone, so it's a shame that it did not happen.
5. Sophie Turner
Appeared in: X-Men film series
Fox's X-Men movie saga decided to take multiple trips into the past during its two decades of big-screen dominance, meaning that we would get to see a host of younger actors portray the titular heroes. The prequel era kicked off with X-Men: First Class but as the stories went on it began to introduce more X-Men characters.
Jean Grey didn't appear until the third offering, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner was cast in the role. She did a great job as the young, troubled Jean, portraying her struggles in an authentic manner. It was actually quite endearing watching Jean grow close to Scott Summers, and Turner had great chemistry with Tye Sheridan.
The character didn't possess the same emotional gravitas as Famke Janssen's portrayal, but that isn't surprising given that Turner was playing a much younger and inexperienced version of the character. And even though Dark Phoenix had a lot of problems, Turner's performance wasn't one of them, as she committed to the role in a bid to make it work.
Turner did a great job with what she was given but it would have been nice to see her introduced in some of the much stronger X-Men movies.
4. Venus Terzo
Appeared in: X-Men: Evolution
Jean Grey is a pretty badass character and the reason I love X-Men: Evolution is that it actually recognizes that. Yes, the character has limitless powers that have the potential to overwhelm her, but she isn't portrayed as a damsel in distress in the way that the previous animated series unfortunately portrayed her to be.
Venus Terzo voiced Jean in X-Men: Evolution and she truly understood the assignment. The show revolved around teenage versions of the X-Men and this actually complemented Jean's story because it allowed us all to see her grow into her powers. There are similarities to the X-Men prequel movies in that we get to see a much younger Jean learn more about her powers, but this was a superior adaptation because she still felt inherently like Jean Grey; and it gave Terzo much more of an opportunity to shine.
As she's younger, she's powerful without being overpowered, but never too conveniently weak for story purposes. She grows into her powers, learning more about herself and Terzo does a wonderful job of capturing that, highlighting it with an even more confident performance in the later seasons.
As far as animated Jeans go, X-Men: Evolution is one of the best, and Terzo's performance is a major reason for that.
3. Jennifer Hale
Appeared in: X-Men '97, Wolverine and the X-Men, Marvel Anime: X-Men
Jennifer Hale plays our current Jean Grey in X-Men '97 but she's been closely associated with the role for years, having previously played the role in the beloved Wolverine and the X-Men as well as Marvel Anime: X-Men. So when Marvel Studios decided to revive X-Men: The Animated Series with the acclaimed Disney Plus sequel series, they drafted in someone who was already very familiar with the role.
In X-Men '97, Hale is voicing the same version of the character that Catherine Disher did in the original show. While fans initially hoped that Disher would return, the series brought the veteran back in a different role, recasting the role of Jean with Hale. And although it seemed like a bizarre decision not to use the original Jean, Hale has done a wonderful job of recapturing that magic that Disher created.
X-Men '97 makes better use of Jean as a character which allows Hale to shine. The character isn't simply there to react to other characters (or miss out on the action) and that presented her with some wonderful opportunities to deliver, offering up a version of Jean that was very much her own but also a spirutal successor the iconic Jean Grey that Disher originated for us. That - and her more intense performance as Madelyn Pryor - results in a performance that is nothing short of captivating.
2. Famke Janssen
Appeared in: X-Men film series
Jean Grey made her long-awaited live-action debut in 2000's X-Men. Famke Janssen was the star who brought her to life, and she was absolutely wonderful in the role. There was a gentle, reserved, and respectful nature to the character that made you feel at ease right away whenever she was on-screen; the perfect contrast to the Phoenix Force she would become. And Janssen was spectacular at both sides of Jean's personality.
She didn't have that much to do early on in the saga, and that was intentional as the film series built towards her big moments in the second and third movies. Nevertheless, there was an aura to Jean that made you want to be around her (almost as much as Scott and Logan did). And speaking of Logan, the chemistry between the two was off-the-charts - as was the chemistry between Janssen and James Marsters' Cyclops.
While audiences weren't always receptive to everything that happened with Jean in the X-Men movies, there is no denying that Famke Janssen set a high bar with her portrayal of Jean Grey through her layered performance. And she remains the definitive portrayal of the character to this day.
However, a new player has made her name felt in that field...
1. Sadie Sink
Appeared in: Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot (upcoming)
When Sadie Sink was cast in Spider-Man: Brand New Day in a mystery role, fans immediately started to speculate that she might be playing Jean Grey. For months leading up the movie's release, that famous question - "Is Sadie Sink playing Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day" - continued to be asked among fan discussions. And Sony leaned heavily into that, having Sink do social videos teasing her mystery character.
But the truth is that Sink wasn't just playing Jean Grey, she was set to become the definitive Jean Grey. It's a bold statement to make considering that she has just had one supporting appearance as the character as of yet, but that is all that she needed to show us what she is capable of.
We mentioned earlier that Jean is a complex character and Sink's performances capture all of that with ease. Although she truly believes that she is doing the right thing throughout Spider-Man: Brand New Day in attempting to save her sister Sara Grey through any means necessary, her actions have immense consequences, throwing it all into question - no matter how noble her intentions of finding her sister are. And Sink sells all of this, with her powerful performance stealing the third act of Brand New Day, making us all root for a character who had no problems making life difficult for the webslinger earlier in the movie.
If you saw Sink in Stranger Things, you already knew that she was a powerhouse of a performer, but she builds on that here, setting the stage for Jean Grey's presence in the MCU (including the upcoming X-Men movie from Jake Schreier) in a way that is so effective that it has left us already longing for her return. Jean Grey is in very good hands.
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