Giancarlo Esposito is one of the strongest working actors in our industry, and every time he pops up in a new project, it’s all but guaranteed that he’s going to make it that much better. That’s why we made this list of his best movies and TV appearances. After setting up one of the baddest characters in drug-crime history in Breaking Bad, Esposito continues to explore the legacy of Gustavo Fring in the superior Better Call Saul. And Esposito also introduced Star Wars fans to a completely formidable new villain when he took the part of Moff Gideon on the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. This brilliant actor doesn’t always have to play a bad guy, however. He just revealed that he has been in talks with Marvel Studios, and he hopes to eventually play one of their heroes.
Giancarlo Esposito was speaking to fans at the TJH Superhero Car Show & Comic Con in San Antonio, Texas when he started to open up on camera (via TikTok user @countdowncitygeeks) about roles he has been rumored to play lately for Marvel Studios. Given the fact that Marvel is ramping up production on Phase 5 and 6, with big news expected to arrive during the D23 celebration in Anaheim in September, Esposito started to tease the crowd, before revealing:
So, I have not worked for Marvel yet. I’ve been in a room with them and talked with them, and to answer your question, I think what they do is on the lines of that mythological journey that Joe Campbell talked about, who happened to be a friend of George Lucas that George Lucas put into his stories. They do the same thing. … So, there's been talk of Magneto. There's been talk of Dr. Freeze. There has been talk of, who else are they talking about over there? Oh, Doom! And there is Professor X. Pick one? I’m going to go for something that is a little bit different. I'm going to go and put it out in the universe that it is Professor X.
Yes. Yes, very much so, yes. Marvel Studios reportedly is working on a plan to bring mutants into the MCU, especially after Kamala Khan was revealed to have a “mutation” in the season finale of Ms. Marvel. Marvel’s Phase 6 kicks with Fantastic Four. That much has been confirmed. But can an X-Men movie fill some of the other slots on that big chart?
We recently caught back up with a very familiar Professor Charles Xavier when Sir Patrick Stewart returned to the role for a small part in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That Professor X belonged to an alternate universe, as explained in the sequel. So why couldn’t Giancarlo Esposito play a version of Charles Xavier from a new Marvel multiverse that we haven’t yet visited?
As mentioned, we believe that Giancarlo Esposito makes everything better, so casting him as the next actor to play Charles Xavier would be a stroke of genius. Perhaps this will be confirmed at D23, if and when Kevin Feige drops more details about the Upcoming Marvel Movie slate. In the meantime, scratch your X-Men itch with episodes of the animated X-Men ‘97, which will be returning with new episodes soon.
