It’s rare that a whole character gets added to a film during reshoots, but that’s the case with Giancarlo Esposito in “Captain America: Brave New World.” According to the actor, that gave him some challenges while filming his scenes.
During Marvel’s massive Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, it was finally revealed exactly who Esposito will be playing in “Brave New World”: Seth Voelker, aka Sidewinder, the king of the Serpent Society. He’s a comic book villain first introduced in 1980.
But Sidewinder wasn’t originally part of the plan for the fourth Cap film. He was added entirely in reshoots — meeting some of his “Brave New World” castmates for the first time at SDCC — and indeed, that was something Esposito wasn’t exactly used to.
“It’s normal for me to see the whole script and to know all of what’s going on. And because I wasn’t privy to that, I had to go backwards and create a backstory for myself, whether it was going to be used or not,” he explained to TheWrap after appearing on stage in Hall H. “So that when I came on screen, I was full, and I was proficient and knowing who the guy was.”
That said, Esposito noted, “That may not be who the guy is now in this film.” Still, making decisions about the character and sticking with those decisions proved to be the key to working through an unusual filming experience.
“The challenges were to commit to exactly what I thought about, and what was on the page, and have him have the ability to be absolutely fierce, no matter which way it was going to go,” Esposito said. “And to complicate him enough so that you could look at him and go, ‘There’s more. There’s more. I know there is, I can see it.’”
He continued, “And that’s the disadvantage of not coming in the beginning and knowing what the whole story is.”
“Captain America: Brave New World” is set to hit theaters on Feb. 14, 2025.