While Giancarlo Esposito’s desire to play a walking Professor X won’t come true, fans of the Breaking Bad actor can take comfort knowing that he’ll soon be seen in the MCU. Earlier this month, Esposito revealed that he’s joining the popular superhero franchise in a mystery role that’s coming "sooner rather than later," and "better than you can imagine." Now another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place, as it’s been revealed which of the upcoming Marvel movies he’ll appear in first.
Back in December it was reported that Captain America: Brave New World would go through reshoots during the summer. Well, cameras are now rolling again in Atlanta, Georgia, and according to THR, Esposito is on the call sheet, making him the newest addition to the Brave New World cast list. The outlet’s sources say that the actor is playing a “villainous role,” but no other details were provided on how this character fits into the new scenes being shot over the course of 22 days.
That said, there is extra information to take into account. Some of the additional material being shot for Captain America: Brave New World will be new action sequences, and there’s a good chance Giancarlo Esposito’s character will be part of one or more of them, because Atlanta Filming capture a picture of the actor’s stand-in. In a separate Instagram post, the same source also shared a crude drawing of the costume Esposito’s character will allegedly wear in Captain America 4, which includes a cape, an axe, a gun and what may be three knives.
While this doesn’t come close to clearing up who Esposito is playing, if that drawing is indeed accurate, then there’s a good chance it could be some kind of mercenary who’s hired to attack Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, who inherited Steve Rogers’ shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame and officially became Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s final episode. There is one final detail to consider: a few days go, Esposito said at the 2024 Phoenix Fan Fusion convention (via Collider) that his MCU character would first be “teased,” and then have a bigger role in an upcoming Marvel TV show.
Considering that Giancarlo Esposito only just came aboard the MCU, we can reasonably rule him out of appearing in shows that have already shot like Agatha, Ironheart, Wonder Man and Daredevil: Born Again. So that would leave Vision Quest, which recently scored a new showrunner, or maybe a series that the public doesn’t know about yet. It’s also possible that Esposito’s character could continue appearing in Marvel movies, like perhaps Thunderbolts*, which already shares Harrison Ford’s Thunderbolt Ross with Brave New World. But working off the available information, you’ll want to make sure your Disney+ subscription is in working order to see what awaits this character after the next Captain America movie.
Directed by Julius Onah, and with Matthew Orton writing the material in these reshoots, Captain America: Brave New World hits theaters on February 14, 2025. If any major updates about Giancarlo Esposito’s mystery MCU character surface, we’ll pass them along.
