Giancarlo Esposito has spent years terrifying television characters without even needing to raise his voice, but apparently, the man who perfected playing villains now wants control of the X-Men. The actor has thrown his name back into the Professor X conversation, only this time, he has brought another Hollywood heavyweight into the fantasy casting room. And if Esposito gets his way, Denzel Washington could be sitting across the mutant battlefield as Magneto.

With Marvel Studios still keeping the future of its MCU X-Men reboot tightly guarded, Esposito has now offered a pairing powerful enough to send fan casting into overdrive.

Giancarlo Esposito addressed the possibility of playing Professor Charles Xavier in the MCU and enthusiastically backed the idea of Denzel Washington joining him as Magneto. Speaking at the Fade to Black podcast, Esposito explained that he had already considered the Professor X role but would prefer a fresh incarnation of the character that did not keep him permanently in a wheelchair. The actor admitted that sitting in a wheelchair every day did not appeal to him, joking that he neither feels old enough nor enjoys sitting that much.

“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,” Esposito said on the podcast.

His proposed pairing with Washington has also revived discussion around Professor X and Magneto’s often-noted ideological parallels with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. The dream casting would place the two acclaimed actors on opposite sides of the X-Men’s defining conflict, with Xavier pushing for coexistence between humans and mutants while Magneto takes a far more ruthless path toward mutant survival. For now, however, the idea remains firmly in dream-casting territory, as Marvel has yet to officially lock down its new Professor X or Magneto for the MCU’s X-Men reboot.

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But while Esposito may still be dreaming about leading the X-Men, Marvel has already found a much sharper corner of its universe for him to occupy.

Giancarlo Esposito officially entered the MCU as Seth Voelker, aka Sidewinder, the leader of the Serpent Society in Captain America: Brave New World. The role traded his usual boardroom intimidation for a more physical and lethal threat, adding another dangerous name to a resume already ruled by Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian, and Stan Edgar in The Boys. Apparently, Hollywood has spent years watching Esposito calmly destroy everyone in the room and decided handing him supervillains was the logical next step.

Beyond Marvel, Esposito continues to keep his schedule dangerously crowded across film and television. His career stretches from Spike Lee classics including Do the Right Thing, School Daze, and Malcolm X to recent projects such as Megalopolis, MaXXXine, and Abigail, while his wider slate continues across animation, mystery, and major franchise territory.

So, whether Marvel eventually hands him Professor X’s chair or not, Esposito clearly has no shortage of universes waiting for him to take control.

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Would you like to see Giancarlo Esposito as Professor X and Denzel Washington as Magneto in the MCU? Let us know in the comments.