Giancarlo Esposito turned down Marvel TV role, wants movie role instead

Giancarlo Esposito wants a Marvel movie role so much that he turned down a gig in the Marvel TV wheelhouse. Why? The Breaking Bad and Jungle Book actor said the TV roles don’t carry over to the big screen.

“I know the Marvel world exists on the Disney lot. I love those guys at Marvel,” he told ComicBook.com. “We’ve been trying to figure out how to collaborate on something. I’m hoping that it is something. They came to me with something for their television department, then I realized if I did that, I’d never be able to have that same character be in that film department.”

He added, “Once you’re in a Marvel character in the television version, you have to stay in the particular character. They can’t carry that over to film.”

Several characters who originated in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have popped over to visit TV land — as when Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) appeared on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around.

Chloe Bennett, who plays Daisy on S.H.I.E.L.D., commented on the lack of connectivity during Wizard World Des Moines Comic-Con earlier this year. “People who make movies for Marvel, why don’t you acknowledge what happens on our show?” she said, according to Bleeding Cool. “Why don’t you guys go ask them that? ‘Cause they don’t seem to care.”

Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige offered this explanation to io9 in an earlier interview: “It’s about finding the right way to do that [crossover],” he said. “And the honest answer is, movies are developed so far in advance that a lot of those things weren’t done when we started to film [Captain America: Civil War].”

He continued, “If we were to do something in a film that absolutely handcuffs what the team can do in season 2 of whatever show, they don’t want to be handcuffed. They shouldn’t be handcuffed. It’s just finding the right time and right place to do it.”