Marvel is “the next step” for The Mandalorian’s Giancarlo Esposito

Giancarlo Esposito has made a career out of playing the best baddies onscreen. Now he wants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What villain could he play?

If the way to have a successful career is to find a niche and fill it, then Giancarlo Esposito has had a very successful career. The actor has been around for a long time — he was great as Buggin’ Out in Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing — but ever since he appeared on Breaking Bad as ice cold drug runner Gus Fring, Esposito has been the guy you go to when you want a good villain.

Moff Gideon from The Mandalorian, Stan Edgar in The Boys, and now the big bad in Far Cry 6…he found his niche.

So it’s interesting to hear him say that he wants to move onto the Marvel Cinematic Universe next, according to MCU Cosmic. “Well, there’s been all these rumors about being with Marvel, I want to work with those guys,” Esposito said. “I put it out there all the time. I haven’t created any of those rumors, but I worked years ago with Louis D’Esposito, who’s one of the guys at Marvel, back when he was doing Cotton Club and I was doing Cotton Club, he was the First AD. What they do is fantastic, and I want to do something enduring with them… I think the Marvel world would be, likely, the next step for me…”

Basically, this means it’s open season on what Marvel villain he could play. The MCU hasn’t gotten a Fantastic Four movie yet. Maybe Esposito would make a good Galactus or Doctor Doom? We also know that the MCU will be introducing the X-Men sooner or later. How about Esposito as Mr. Sinister, the Shadow King, or Magneto?

Or he could surprise us and play a good guy. Maybe he’s sick of playing villains, but he’s just so good at it…

Closer in time, Esposito will return as Moff Gideon on The Mandalorian, where he’ll be chasing Mando across the galaxy trying to get his hands on Baby Yoda. He’s also in possession of the DarkSaber, a powerful weapon that marks him as a man not to be messed with. “To have this saber means I can use it, and I can do my own dirty work, that I’m a fighter, that I’m a warrior,” he said.

"That’s part of me. It also creates the possibility that he is one of the ones. He possibly has that, and that to me is interesting because is he really that fallen hero? Is he a descendant of Darth Vader. Who is he? What does he want? He knows all about everything, and you’ll have to wait to find out. Yeah, he’s actually pretty good with that Darksaber too."

I think by “one of the ones,” Esposito is teasing that Gideon might have Force powers, which could make him even more dangerous than we thought. He’ll harry Mando’s steps when The Mandalorian season 2 hits Disney+ this October.

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