Giancarlo Esposito recently mentioned one condition he had for playing Professor X, and luckily it fits perfectly with Marvel Comics’ current version.

Giancarlo Esposito recently shared a condition for accepting a possible role as X-Men leader, Professor X, and it actually fits nicely with Marvel’s recent depictions of the character. Esposito has been a popular fan cast in the role of Professor X for some years now. While Giancarlo Esposito first talked about playing Professor X in 2022, the role still appears to be on his mind, perhaps in part because of his expressed interest in a change of pace from playing villains. As such, the MCU’s upcoming X-Men projects are the perfect opportunity to give the actor a hero role.

Although Professor X has usually been portrayed one consistent way across most of his film appearances, the character hasn’t been as static in the comics. Marvel has played around with different looks and abilities for Professor X over the years, some of which have been more in line with the version Giancarlo Esposito says he would like to play. Marvel may even already want to show a drastically different version of Professor X to differentiate the MCU’s X-Men from the Fox Universe. If this is the case, Esposito could very well get his wish for Professor X’s portrayal in the MCU timeline.

Giancarlo Esposito Doesn’t Want To Play X-Men’s Professor X In A Wheelchair

Giancarlo Esposito Doesn’t Want A Role That Would Force Him To Sit Too Much

Giancarlo Esposito recently sat down with Amon Warmann for his Fade to Black Podcast, where he mentioned that he wouldn’t want to play Professor X in a wheelchair. While he still said he was open to the role, Esposito stressed that he wouldn’t be comfortable spending most of his time on set using a chair.

“…immediately I go, ‘it would be great to play Professor X in some other incarnation than just the wheelchair,’ right? Because the physical idea of being in a wheelchair every single day does not appeal to me. I just don’t feel that old and I don’t like to sit that much. But certainly we could figure something out. Maybe. Professor X wasn’t always in the wheelchair, but that is part of his character development.”

Given Esposito’s comments, it seems like he would prefer to play a version of Professor X that is different from many of the previous portrayals of the character. Except for X-Men: First Class, Professor X has typically been shown after he has lost the use of his legs.

Charles Xavier is widely known as a wheelchair user, and changing this aspect of him would mean taking away one of the best known superheroes with a disability from the MCU.

Whether Marvel would choose to forgo the most recognizable version of Professor X in the MCU is hard to say. Charles Xavier is widely known as a wheelchair user, and changing this aspect of him would mean taking away one of the best known superheroes with a disability from the MCU. Marvel may want to keep the original version of Xavier to have more representation for a wider range of people with disabilities. However, if Marvel does cast Giancarlo Esposito, they may be willing to show Professor X being able to walk, as there is precedent in the comics.

Professor X Has Been Out Of The Wheelchair For Years In Marvel Comics

Professor X Has Been Consistently Walking Since X-Men: Deadly Genesis (2006)

In more recent years Xavier has permanently regained the ability to walk.

Although Professor X is usually depicted as a wheelchair user in X-Men movies and TV shows, Xavier has regained his ability to walk several times throughout his long comic book history. Though several of these instances were quickly reversed by the character once again suffering some sort of injury, in more recent years Xavier has permanently regained the ability to walk.

Xavier permanently regained the ability to walk following the “House of M” event as explained by the 2006 comic X-Men: Deadly Genesis by Ed Brubaker, Trevor Hairsine and Marc Silvestri. Xavier later died, but was eventually reborn into a younger body. Now that Professor X lives on the mutant island Krakoa, he has technology that will allow him to be reborn indefinitely. This means that for the past 18 years, Professor Xavier has consistently been depicted as walking in Marvel Comics. This gives Marvel a clear version to adapt if they want to get Giancarlo Esposito in the role.

Esposito’s Professor X Idea Risks Repeating Fox’s Version

Fox Previously Showed How Professor X Lost His Ability To Walk In X-Men: First Class (2011)

When discussing trying to work around playing Professor X in a wheelchair, Giancarlo Esposito mentioned that he knew Professor X losing the use of his legs was “part of his character development.” This implies that Esposito could have been considering a version of events where Charles starts with the ability to walk, and then loses it later on at some point. While this isn’t a bad option, it is one that audiences have already seen. James McAvoy’s version of the character in X-Men: First Class follows this exact path in the movie, and Marvel likely wouldn’t want to repeat it.

Marvel could easily avoid this issue by simply adapting the modern comic book version of Professor X in the MCU. If they wanted, they could even do the opposite of First Class, and have Professor X start using a wheelchair, then regain the ability to walk later on. Either way, Marvel has options for meeting Giancarlo Esposito’s condition if they decide they want him to lead the MCU’s version of the X-Men.