Giancarlo Esposito has shared that he wasn't original meant to play Serpent leader Seth Voelker/Sidewinder in Captain America: Brave New World.
The film, which was delayed by over a year, looked very different when Esposito first signed on.
Speaking to Empire (via ScreenRant) Esposito revealed he was originally meant to play a character called King Cobra, which he was excited about.
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"It was supposed to come out in March of 2024, and they decided they wanted to make some changes," the actor said.
"I was on the phone with [producer] Nate Moore, who prepped me to be, possibly, a character called King Cobra, which I loved, because if I'm walking around the neighborhood, African-Americans go, 'What's up, King?' I love it."
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"They call me King, baby! I mean, that's the highest honor," he continued. "But as it turned out, there [are other Kings] in the Marvel world, and this was connected to the Serpent Society - they were going back to the comics and trying to figure it out."
Esposito went on to explain that the character Moore came up with had the characteristics of King but would be Sidewinder, a character who first appeared in 1980 comic Marvel Two-in-One #64.
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He continued: "They spoke about creating a character that was really grounded, in a mercenary fashion. They wanted to ground the movie when they went back in to do some additional shooting, and their focus now was on this additional character. So it was a bit of a whirlwind for me.
"I focused myself and I went in there and knocked it out. (...) And I'm hoping to be in this universe a little longer."
Captain America: Brave New World is in cinemas now. The first three Captain America movies and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are streaming on Disney+.
Read more Marvel news on our dedicated homepage
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Stephanie is a freelance news writer, who previously covered WWE and AEW for Digital Spy.
After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she studied journalism at Birkbeck University.
Outside of her work at Digital Spy, she writes about pop culture, with a special focus towards Irish media and how it intersects with politics.
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