In finally providing insight into the film’s sudden switching of its Serpent Society representative from WWE superstar Seth Rollins to famed Hollywood actor Giancarlo Esposito, Captain America: Brave New World director Julius Onah has revealed that the swap was made because he felt the latter entertainer was an overall better for the overall narrative of Sam Wilson’s next adventure.
As previously reported, Rollins’ role in Brave New World was one of the earliest bits of information to leak online regarding the film’s production, with his casting as the MCU’s version of Serpent Society leader King Cobra first suggested by various scoopers and later confirmed by a set photo of the actor preparing for a scene while wearing his costume (albeit one lacking not just the villain’s signature cobra headpiece, but really any ‘comic book flair’ at all).
But as the film entered its first round of reshoots, said scoopers would subsequently learn from their sources that for then-unknown reasons, Rollins was no longer on the card for Sam Wilson’s title match.
Though no official explanation for this change was ever provided – understandably so given that most productions don’t like to fully give away all of their surprises before release, and any official statement would have likely confirmed a number of other leaks and rumors – fans have long since speculated that this change was the result of Marvel Studios scrambling to save Brave New World after its first cut absolutely bombed in its initial test screenings.
Fuel would only be added to this theory when the aforementioned Esposito was ultimately revealed to be playing one of the film’s main villains, fellow Serpent Society member Sidewinder, with the fact that he was playing such a major role despite having been added to the film’s cast during reshoots being taken as a particularly heavy hint that he was not a part of Brave New World‘s initial script.
Further, as claimed by the wrestler during a recent interview with entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet, even Rollins himself has supposedly been kept in the dark about the entire situation, having heard nothing since leaving set regarding the fate of his role.
“I did do a bit of an audition to possibly pop into another role I believe, or the repurposing of my role,” he told his host. “I’m not exactly sure on what it was. But they ended up going in a different direction with it. My understanding is there was just a lot of rewrites and a lot of reshoots. They know they’ve got a finished product that hopefully they’re happy with, and hopefully it’s successful.”
However, no more will fans or Rollins have to wonder, as a new interview between Onah and ComicBook.com’s Matthew Aguilar has seen the director provide his own personal insight into the casting switch-up.
“When you’re taking characters like Serpent Society from publishing, who, as you know, are individuals dressed up as snakes and have snake-adjacent powers, you’re always iterating and trying to figure out the version that totally works best in a movie like this,” detailed Onah. “I love Seth, Seth’s incredible. But as we were evolving and we knew we had an additional photography period, just one that we did early on in the process that’s planned.”
“We were trying to figure out, ‘Hey, who’s somebody that can bring a very specific kind of gravitas that works with this tone?’” he continued. “And when Giancarlo became available, it was such a no-brainer. I have a very particular history with him. He’s iconic for working with Spike Lee. I interned with Spike Lee when I was 19 years old. And, of course, fans have been fan-casting him for a long time in the MCU.”
“So it’s really about making sure that all the elements worked in the grounded tone and vision that I have for this film,” he concluded. “And as we evolved and iterated, Giancarlo just made sense. And what a blessing to have in this film.”
While there unsurprisingly exists no word on whether or not fans may someday yet see the ‘Rollins Cut’ of Captain America: Brave New World, should that day ever come, it will likely happen long, long after the film’s theatrical run – as currently on track to commence on February 14th – has come to a close.