Giancarlo Esposito showing up in a movie may not be good news for the main characters, but it’s great for audiences. The actor has earned a name for portraying implacably charismatic villains, and the first trailer for Captain America: Brave New World raised the question: Which villain is he playing this time?
Esposito was a late addition to the delayed Sam Wilson feature, which completed principle photography in the middle of 2023, and has undergone several 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’s 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 would 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, code name Sidewinder, whose skills were a head for business (evil business) and a cloak that allowed him to teleport (evil teleport, probably).
Given that Captain America: Brave New World is being billed as a political thriller, however, it seems likely that this won’t exactly be the Sidewinder who comics fans are familiar with.
Before the official confirmation of Esposito’s character, the internet rumor mill was hard at work, with many adopting the idea that Esposito was playing a completely different character: the best-named SHIELD agent in Marvel Comics canon, G.W. Bridge.
Yes, that is a SHIELD agent with the full name George Washington Bridge
G.W. Bridge is a badass government agent who shares a name with the world’s busiest motor vehicle bridge. But he isn’t 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’re in an era in which any and all potential X-Men connections in the MCU are worthy of scrutiny, and G.W. Bridge did begin his comic book existence as a supporting cast member of X-Force, the X-Men’s spec-ops team.
While Sidewinder doesn’t link Captain America: Brave New World up with the X-Men, he’s the king of the Serpent Society. We expect Esposito to pack plenty of menace.
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