Who Is Giancarlo Esposito Playing In The MCU?

Over the years Giancarlo Epsosito has become one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood. From going from an unknown actor who didn’t get many roles, to becoming famous thanks to Breaking Bad and seemingly playing a great villain in MANY roles ever since, Esposito has become almost a household name. For years fans have wanted the 4x Emmy Award winner to join the ranks of the MCU in almost any announced project, certainly fancasts which have seen Esposito listed as Doctor Doom all the way to even Charles Xavier. Now, the actor has finally joined the MCU in the upcoming film, Captain America: Brave New World.

In mid-May the actor announced that he’s joined the MCU in a role that many haven’t guessed before. Since then he’s called his character an “antagonistic agent of chaos.” The fourth Captain America film went through extensive rewrites, with reshoots beginning in late May, and just last week the trailer for the upcoming MCU film dropped online ahead of San Diego Comic Con.

In the trailer we see the actor with thin cut hair, black glasses, a black coat with orange lining, throwing knives on a vest, with a hand gun or two costarred to his waist. We also see him reloading a gun where his eyes seem cloudy as if he’s either blind, or going blind. It also didn’t seem all that clear if he was even looking at the gun or not. Fans have been left guessing, yet again, on his identity and this look really isn’t black and white on any of my theories.

Paladin

Paladin was a mercenary and private investigator, who has string ties to Daredevil as the two have crossed paths, both good and bad, many times. Paladin has a certain amount of honor. For example, he was once hired by a corrupt government to assist rebels as part of a sting operation. He aided the rebels in a bomb-laying operation at a government facility, but when the rebels were caught, his government handler remarked how lucky they were that the bomb had not gone off. Paladin replied, "I'm sorry, that would have been extra," and activated the bomb by remote control while driving away.

He was offered $10 million by mobster Vincent Mangano to kill the Punisher. Paladin agreed, but did not succeed, and in the ensuing fight both of his legs were broken by the U.S. Agent. Paladin once took down Daredevil with a sniper rifle from a helicopter at a great distance. He did so for the FBI, in exchange for getting his record expunged. The hit, while serious, was not fatal, though did lead to Daredevil's arrest. The look of Esposito in the trailer screams mercenary to me, and the “costume” design is very similar to Paladin’s.

Doctor Doom

Many aren’t aware that Doom rules the fictitious country of Latveria, where he has an armada of soldiers/mercenaries at his command. Many also don’t realize that Doom is a highly gifted sorcerer whose mystical abilities rival that of Doctor Strange, and surpass even Wong’s. When Doom’s mother died when he was a child, he went to the U.S. to study at M.I.T. where he befriended Reed Richards and two grew a tight bond. Doom never accepted that his mom died, so he worked on science projects to raise the dead, but Reed talked him out of it due to how unethical it was.

After graduating, Doom went back to Latveria, rummaged through his mother’s things, and that’s where it all started. He found a secret room with dozens of spell books and he soon found out that his mom was a high-ranking sorceress. He read all of her books in the course of a night, mastering magic in the process. Doom is my favorite villain in all of comics, and you don’t need to have Reed and the Fantastic Four as heavy players when using Doom. Frankly his greatest ally in life might be Wanda Maximoff, and based on how Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness leaves the Scarlet Witch… I don’t see her having many friends in the hero world, for the foreseeable future at least.

Norman Osborn

A good way to differentiate MCU Osborn to Sony’s Osborn, would be for instead of him being a tech tycoon or weapons manufacturer, he’s a billionaire philanthropist whose more of a “mercenary.” With the MCU having Willem Dafoe return as Osborn in Spider-Man: No Way Home, it really made the idea of having a new Osborn seem less likely right out of the gate. But Osborn is Spider-Man’s best villain, and having the MCU’s Peter Parker get to know the character thanks to the multiverse and him killing Aunt May… Peter trying to track down his world’s Osborn would be a neat idea.

Keeping tabs on him, and almost becoming obsessed would be pretty fun to play with, especially if he runs into Harry Osborn. Forming a relationship with Harry and using him to get close to his father, would be an idea that I would love to see Kevin Feige, Nate Moore and others explore in future movies. There’s also the recent Marvel Comics story Dark Reign which saw Norman being named the new Iron Patriot by the government. In this story Osborn created a plot to try to assassinate the president and to take over the country. There are many aspects to Norman, aside from him being an weapons manufacturer, that the MCU could explore.

William Stryker

Fans of the Fox X-Men franchise should remember William Stryker as the government official whose responsible for the capturing and torture of Wolverine, as well as replacing every bone in his body with Adamantium. Stryker is a man who believes Mutants should be either exterminated, or used as weapons for the U.S.A.

Tiamut was seen in the Brave New World trailer, and could confirm that the long lasting rumor about the fallen Celestial being made up of Adamantium with countries trying to get pieces of the metal that rivals Vibranium, for themselves.

We’ve seen in the MCU, mainly in Captain America: Civil War, that Thaddeus Ross doesn’t care much for superheroes. If Stryker were to seek out Ross, who is now the president, and warn him about Mutants… that would get Stryker on Ross’ payroll.

Bolivar Trask

Bolivar Trask was played by Peter Dinklage in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and is a deranged scientist crazed on stopping Mutants, much like Stryker, just Trask has no intentions of using them as weapons. He wants to harness their power, but for his Sentinel robots who are near indestructible and can mimic the powers of certain Mutants, and some can even absorb their powers for themselves to use. Ironically, Trask has Mutant abilities and can see into the future. With Esposito’s character having cloudy eyes, and giving us the impression that he’s blind, maybe his eyes turn to a cloudy color when he uses his power?

Trask trying to form a relationship with the new president would be ideal, so he can maybe get government funding for his Sentinel project, after he warns Ross of the “Mutant threat.” Ross fears the Hulk, and that fear brews into being hesitant towards any superhero when he first meets them. Hearing about a “new” type of human where every one of them has their own individual superpower, would be neat to play off of in the MCU. We know that Ross becomes the Red Hulk by the end of the film, only question is what causes him to do that? Tying it into Mutants would be a fascinating idea.

Jacob “Scorpio” Fury

Many don’t know this, but Nick Fury has a brother. Jake just isn’t like Nick, and in fact hates the S.H.I.E.L.D. director, and has even become a terrorist/spy. It’s been rumored that the villainous Serpent Society will have a role in Brave New World, so maybe “Scorpio” could be their leader. Jake and Nick never saw eye-to-eye as kids, and it lead into their adulthood where the two crossed paths on occasion where Jake was committing acts of terrorism. Jake could be working with Isaiah Bradley, who in the Brave New World trailer tries to shoot president Ross during a speech. That’s a little out of character for the first Captain America that we met in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. Maybe Scorpio gets to Bradley, and the two form a relationship.

Introducing Fury’s brother, this late into the MCU, into a film which, thanks to the trailer seems like a classic espionage film, would be a pretty cool idea. Who doesn’t like the thought of Giancarlo Esposito and Samuel L. Jackson butting heads in a movie?!

Time will tell on who the Emmy-winning actor is playing, and he still insists after the trailer dropped that no one has properly guessed who he’s playing. But no matter who he is, I’m sure it’ll be exciting to watch. You can see Captain America: Brave New World only in theaters on February 14, 2025.