Giancarlo Esposito to appear in a movie may not be good news for the main charactersbut it’s great for the audience. The actor has made a name for himself playing relentlessly charismatic villains, and the first trailer for Captain America: Brave New World begged the question: which villain is he playing this time?
Esposito was a late addition to the delayed Sam Wilson film, which wrapped principal photography in mid-2023 and has undergone months of reshoots and rewrites in 2024 — more than usual for an MCU film. Both Esposito and Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel) joined the cast during reshoots, and Marvel Studios kept their roles under wraps until the studio San Diego Comic-Con panel in Hall H this Saturday.
Meet Sidewinder, king of the Serpent Society
In the comics, the Serpent Society is a consortium of supervillains who decided they’d be more successful if they worked together – and they all happened to be snake-themed, so that was convenient. The group was founded by Seth Voelker, codename Sidewinder, whose skills included being a business head (malignant affairs) and a cloak that allowed him to teleport (malignant teleport, probably).
Given that Captain America: Brave New World is billed as a political thriller, but it seems this isn’t exactly the Sidewinder that comic book fans are familiar with.
Before Esposito’s character was officially confirmed, the Internet rumor mill was in full swing, with many take over the idea that Esposito was playing a very different character: the SHIELD agent with the best name in the Marvel Comics series, GW Bridge.
Yes, that’s a SHIELD agent whose full name is George Washington Bridge
GW Bridge is a tough government agent who shares a name with the world’s busiest vehicular bridge. But he’s not a character who’s ever been closely associated with Captain America or Sam Wilson — and SHIELD doesn’t really exist in the MCU anymore. But we live in an age where any potential X-Men connection in the MCU is worth exploring, and GW Bridge began his comic book life as a bit-part player in X-forcethe X-Men’s special-ops team.
Although Sidewinder does not link Captain America: Brave New World with the X-Men, he is the king of the Serpent Society. We expect Esposito to bring a lot of menace.
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