Giancarlo Esposito has turned down the Professor X campaign — the X-Men part he actually wants is still open
Forget the fan edits casting him as Professor X — Giancarlo Esposito has revealed which X-Men role he’s really after.
Let’s be honest, there aren’t many actors in Hollywood with the presence of Giancarlo Esposito. The man has made a career out of playing intimidating, razor-sharp villains, with everyone from Breaking Bad’s Gus Fring to The Mandalorian’s Moff Gideon in his back pocket. So when fans started imagining him as the next bald telepathic leader of the X-Men, the idea rather took off online. But as it turns out, Esposito himself has a slightly different mutant in mind – and no, it’s not Professor X.
Magneto on His Mind
Chatting to Polygon ahead of The Gentlemen season two, Esposito finally addressed the Professor X rumours. He acknowledged the fan casting, saying it took on a life of its own after people started doing their own photoshopped versions. Here’s how Esposito put it in the interview when talking about all the excitement:
Professor X, just to be clear, was a fan casting idea that got spread very quickly, and it was an idea that appealed to me because of who Professor X is.
However, he’s not got his heart set on just Xavier’s wheelchair. Esposito went on to reveal that he’s also rather drawn to Magneto, saying he likes the character and the "fantastical" rhythm of the world Magneto occupies. Honestly, it’s not hard to picture him giving a lecture about mutant superiority with that icy stare. But that’s not all – he casually mentions another character he’d fancy having a crack at: Mr. Freeze. Supervillain bingo, anyone?
For those keeping score: Marvel have already cast Christopher Abbott as Professor X in the next X-Men reboot, but they haven’t said who’s playing Magneto yet. That slot is still open, so make of that what you will.
Already in the MCU
If you’re thinking, 'Hang on, hasn’t Esposito already done the Marvel dance?' – yes, he has. He popped up in Captain America: Brave New World, tackling the role of Seth Voelker (aka Sidewinder), the guy running the Serpent Society in the 2025 film starring Sam Wilson’s Cap. Don’t go looking for a big purple snake suit though; they didn’t bother with the comic-accurate costume for Sidewinder this time round.
Apparently there’s plenty more to dig into with Voelker’s backstory from the comics, but Esposito didn’t get to go there in the film itself. As he said in the same interview:
There’s a story there which I didn’t have the ability to tell in what I had to do in Captain America 4.
Sidewinder makes it out of the film in one piece, so Esposito’s not written out of MCU history just yet – always handy with Marvel’s habit of surprise cameos and mid-credits scene teases.
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