“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” director Destin Daniel Cretton and stunt designer Peng Zhang designed the film’s climactic fight to reflect Jean Grey’s connection to the Phoenix. The sequence sees Spider-Man attempt to rescue Jean from the Department of Damage Control while confronting The Hand, magical ninja assassins under her control, making the action serve both the plot and her characterisation.

Zhang said the fight was intended to remain emotionally grounded despite Spider-Man’s use of alien technology. Its 20 ninjas move as a single unit, inspired first by a peacock dance and then arranged to suggest a phoenix: a central “head” flanked by wing-like formations. The climax follows Jean’s detention by the DODC, the agency she blames for also kidnapping her sister Sara.