Giancarlo Esposito wants to be the MCU’s Professor X. Although he usually plays villains, he would actually be the perfect choice for the X-Men hero.

Giancarlo Esposito has announced his desire to be the MCU‘s Professor X, and his previous villain roles prove that he’d be a perfect fit for the heroic X-Men leader. MCU Phase 4 continues to expand the scope of the franchise considerably, and with Ms. Marvel confirming mutants in the MCU, it’s only a matter of time before the X-Men are introduced. After years of X-Men movies existing independently of the MCU due to Fox owning the rights to the characters, the iconic heroes will finally join Hollywood’s biggest franchise. The burning question now is who exactly will be cast to fill the high-profile X-Men roles.

One actor who has shared his interest in the part of X-Men leader Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X, is Giancarlo Esposito. So far, Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy have filled the role in live-action movies, but Esposito’s casting would bring something fresh and interesting to the character. One thing that makes Esposito stand out is that he rose to prominence with villainous roles, including drug kingpin Gustavo Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian, and Stan Edgar in The Boys.

As Giancarlo Esposito makes a great villain, it may be difficult to envision him in the heroic role of Professor X. However, it’s exactly the qualities that make Esposito a good villain that make him an excellent fit for the leader of the X-Men. Esposito’s calm stoicism has been used to create multiple exceptional villains, but it’s also a quality that could lend itself brilliantly to the telepathic leader of the MCU’s mutants.

Giancarlo Esposito’s Professor X Could Be Just What The MCU Needs

Giancarlo Esposito’s calm and collected screen presence has allowed him to become an unforgettable villain, but it would also translate well to the role of Professor X in the MCU. The franchise’s heroes are generally characterized as larger-than-life figures who offer up consistent opportunities for light comedy, so a more stoic approach to the leader of the mutants in the MCU would be a refreshing change. What’s more, if any MCU character needs to break its established hero mold, it’s Professor X, as he’s typically a more serious figure than most Marvel heroes.

Interestingly, Professor X’s role in many Marvel stories could actually make use of Giancarlo Esposito’s villain experience. As the leader of the X-Men, Professor X is one of Marvel’s most prominent mutants, and he often finds himself at odds with other heroes, particularly the Avengers. Though there’s no indication of a clash between the Avengers and the X-Men any time soon, it’s possible that the goals of the MCU’s mutants will not always match up with those of the Avengers. This would allow Esposito’s villainous streak to subtly shine through, as he’d be both a potential ally and a potential threat to the existing heroes of the MCU.

Esposito’s casting would allow the MCU to explore Professor X’s darker side, as the actor is well-versed in playing complex characters with even more complex goals. This is something that previous X-Men movies have shied away from, which means that Esposito’s casting would be perfect on multiple levels: he’d bring the talent necessary to do the character justice, and also the potential for something new and exciting. Though he may be known for playing villains, Giancarlo Esposito might just be the perfect Professor X for the MCU‘s X-Men.

J.J. Perry started his career in Hollywood by getting hit by cars. Now, he’s taking on his first project for the big screen. In “Day Shift,” Perry used his extensive knowledge of stunts and action scenes to create vampire-slaying sequences with garlic grenades, katanas and silver bullets.

“I prepped this movie so hard,” Perry told Variety Wednesday evening at the red carpet premiere for the film in Los Angeles. “I think we ended up with, like, 65 setups. [The first day on set] was the opening fight in the grandma’s house. We shot that in three days. It would usually take people about five or six days. We were ready. We knew what we were doing. A bunch of action guys doing action stuff.”

“Day Shift” stars Jamie Foxx as a father and vampire hunter in the San Fernando Valley. Alongside friends, played by Dave Franco and Snoop Dogg, Foxx takes on the villainous “Uber vampire” Audrey (Karla Souza) before she takes over the entire valley. The supporting cast is rounded out by Meagan Good, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Zion Broadnax. And in Perry’s eyes, directing his first feature film wasn’t that tall of a task.

“I’ve been directing second unit for 20 years now, which is arguably harder to do than first unit,” Perry said. “Because you’re driving 17 cars, six motorcycles, explosions, motorcycles, helicopters. So getting an opportunity to direct first unit was a real challenge, but a lot of fun. And I checked it off my bucket list and hope everybody loves it. And hopefully we’ll be doing it again.”

Bordizzo plays a katana-wielding vampire in the film that fights alongside Foxx, cutting enemy vampires in half with outstanding acrobatics. Bordizzo, a seasoned vet of action movies due to appearances in “Guns Akimbo” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny,” recalls the ease that comes with having an ex-stuntman helming a film.

“He’s very visual,” Bordizzo explained. “It was very snappy. Like you come to work and he knows exactly what he wants. He also has a very military-like stunt team… It’s actually amazing.”

“Day Shift” premieres this Friday, Aug. 12 exclusively on Netflix.

Hulu’s Prey takes what made Predator successful and puts a new spin on the formula, including a clever update on one of Dutch’s (Arnold Schwarzenegger) tricks from the original movie. Prey strips the series back down to its basics, pitting underdog survivors against the ultimate hunter. The Predator movies have strayed from what made the original movie special, instead trying to one-up each other by bringing in different Predator species, introducing the Alien Xenomorphs as rivals, and focusing on creating a cinematic universe rather than a cohesive singular film.

Prey distances itself from the convoluted timeline of the Predator franchise by setting it 300 years in the past in the Northern Great Plains, with the main characters being First Nation Comanche members played by Native American actors. Another major change of pace in Prey compared to the other Predator movies is that Prey‘s protagonist Naru (Amber Midthunder) is female. Even with these changes, major aspects of the Predator franchise are still intact, and many plot developments and Easter eggs connect this prequel canonically to the other movies.

One of Dutch’s best tricks in the original Predator was covering himself in mud to lower his body temperature and avoid detection from the Predator, and there is a similar scene in Prey that uses the image of a mud-covered protagonist in a new way. Early on her journey, Naru falls into a bog and is almost swallowed whole by mud, but she uses her new “leashed” hatchet invention to rescue herself. Naru emerges from the bog covered in mud, and instead of being predictable by having the Predator show up and teach Naru about Dutch’s famous mud trick, she instead uses the bog later to trap and defeat the Predator. She does discover lowering her body temperature makes her invisible to the Predator, but it’s because she uses the orange tutsia flower established earlier in the movie.

Prey’s Best Easter Eggs All Service Naru’s Story

The clever allusion to Dutch’s mud trick from the original Predator is not the only reference to the Predator franchise that Prey uses to enhance its plot. The famous line “If it bleeds, we can kill it” is said by Naru’s brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers), and it isn’t used as a throwaway reference to Dutch’s line from the original. Naru spends the entire film trying to prove herself as a hunter, and Taabe is shown to be supportive but skeptical of her abilities, so reciting this line to her helps her evolve as a hunter. She gains the confidence to outwit the Predator at the end of the film because she knows it can be hunted and killed. The reference to Predator 2 at the end of the movie also furthers Naru’s story. The flintlock pistol she gets from the French fur trappers is the same pistol that was given to Lieutenant Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) in Predator 2, which, along with the cave painting teaser during the end credits, suggests that this is not the last time Naru will have to face a Predator.

Prey takes elements from the Predator movies which came before it, but it never feels like a retread. Instead, it uses the knowledge of the previous movies to further the story of Naru becoming the hunter she always wanted to be. While it connects to the other movies in the franchise with direct references, Prey is a successfully unique Predator movie with a different cast and setting from the rest of the franchise, and it uses the other movies as a jumping-off point for a new take on a familiar property.