Giancarlo Esposito Joins Captain America: Brave New World Reshoots As A New Villain

For anyone worried about the state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this latest news probably isn't going to do much to quell your fears.

The Hollywoood Reporter has news that "Captain America: Brave New World," which will mark the big screen debut of Anthony Mackie as the Sam Wilson version of the star-spangled superhero, will be undergoing 22 days of reshoots. Along with adding new action sequences to the movie, whatever scenes are being reshot will also be bringing a new cast member into the mix. 

Giancarlo Esposito, best known for playing the vicious Gus Fring on "Breaking Bad" and Moff Gideon on the "Star Wars" TV series "The Mandalorian," has been cast in what the trade is calling an "undisclosed role," but apparently it will be a villainous role. Since Esposito was not part of the movie's original cast during principal photography, that means that this character is being added to the movie in these reshoots, which is more than a little concerning when many Marvel Studios productions haven't exactly been rolling in praise over the past few years. This means that he also won't be playing Professor Charles Xavier in a future "X-Men" movie, something the actor had expressed interest in previously.

Production on "Captain America: Brave New World" was able to wrap shooting before the double Hollywood strikes from the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild last year. But in post-production, the movie was pushed back from its previous July 26, 2024 release date to a February 2025 release. At the time, that wasn't something to worry about, mostly because a lot of movies got pushed back because of the strikes. But now that we have details on how extensive these reshoots will be, there's something to be worried about.

Matthew Orton, who worked on the "Moon Knight" TV series for Disney+, was brought in to write new script pages in December, and if Marvel has 22 days of reshoots planned, those pages must be doing a lot of heavy lifting to improve the movie. However, The Hollywood Reporter indicates that the reshoots aren't as drastic as those done for "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" or "The Marvels." But at this point, we're not sure how much of that is damage control for a movie that has an uphill battle to impress fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Without knowing who Giancarlo Esposito will be playing in "Captain America: Brave New World," it's hard to know what to expect from his performance. Will he be a signature comic book villain with superpowers or a more grounded, strategic villain? Could he end up playing a larger role in the MCU that impacts future movies?

"Captain America: Brave New World" also stars Harrison Ford, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, Danny Ramirez, and Rosa Salazar, and the movie is slated to arrive on February 14, 2025.