Giancarlo Esposito has been in the entertainment industry for over four decades. He is best known for his role as Gus Fring in the crime drama series- Breaking Bad and its spin-off- Better Call Saul. He won the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in the former.
Furthermore, Esposito was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series thrice. He has been in talks about playing the X-Men character Professor X for quite some time. Recently, he said something regarding this, which did not sit well with netizens, who had a furious outburst.
Giancarlo Esposito Wants Marvel to Race Swap Two Major X-Men Characters and Fans Aren’t Too Happy About It
Giancarlo Esposito has appeared in many series such as the Amazon series- The Boys, the Disney+ series- The Mandalorian, and the hit Netflix TV series- Kaleidoscope. In addition to this, he has also appeared in several Spike Lee movies such as School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, and Malcolm X. This is proof of his diverse filmography.
The actor is widely known for playing calm, collected, and calculating villains. So, playing the role of Professor X would be good for a change. The last time the character was seen on the screen was when Patrick Stewart portrayed the character in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Although the Stargirl actor has expressed being cast as the mutant superhero, his suggestion of the addition of Denzel Washington to the cast as Magneto did not go well. When interviewer Amon Warmann said that Esposito could play the role of Professor X and Washington that of Magneto, the Taps actor said: “I think it will be great.”
Fans, however, do not seem to agree with this as some of them labeled this as race-swapping. Here is what some of them had to say:
Stop race swapping characters bruh. Magneto is a german holocaust survivor his whiteness is important to his character.
— GKTRE (@GKTRE_) March 11, 2024
Can’t wait for black Hebrew Israelite Magneto
— Plato’s Gooncave (@PlatosGooncave) March 11, 2024
they need to stop with the race swaps
— MJ 😴 (@mjhasnohoes) March 11, 2024
They really need to stop thinking that raceswapping is a good idea for shit.
Its not.
Especially not with characters like them who ARE defined by their identity and ethnicity in many ways.— Ri§en (@RisenLN_2) March 11, 2024
The Black X men💀
— Obito (@ObitoThegreat) March 11, 2024
Fans are not wrong about Magneto being a Holocaust survivor so it would cause issues if Washington were to be cast as the character. However, if the backstory were to be changed a little, Washington would be a great choice for the portrayal of the mutant.
Giancarlo Esposito on the One Problem with Playing Marvel’s Professor X
During an appearance at Fan Expo Boston in 2022, Esposito reflected on how he would play the fan-favorite character if he was given the chance (via LiamTCrowley on X). In his interview with Warmann, the actor said that he had seen the fan-casting suggestion online. He has also been seen as the Spider-Man villain Green Goblin in fan art.
The Jungle Book actor also said that he had thought about it and there was a thing that was posing a problem. He said:
“I’ve given it a cursory glance in my brain, and immediately I go ‘Hmm.’ [It would] be great to play Professor X in some other incarnation than just the wheelchair. Right? Because the physical idea of being in a wheelchair every single day does not appeal to me. I just don’t feel that old and I don’t like to sit that much.”
However, the actor went on to say that there might be some way around it as being in the wheelchair was part of Professor X’s character development.
