Since stealing the show as the twisted Gus Fring in Breaking Bad, Giancarlo Esposito has played many a villain. Most recently, he's starred in The Electric State and Captain America: Brave New World. In the latter, he suited up as Serpent Society leader Sidewinder.
Fans were disappointed to see the actor "wasted" on such a minor character in the MCU, especially after years of fan casts suggesting he suit up as Magneto or Mister Sinister, for example.
Could Esposito get a second chance in the DCU? It wouldn't be overly surprising, and the actor has now thrown his hat into the ring for Batman villain Mr. Freeze. The character has been rumoured to appear on screen for several years now, both in Matt Reeves' The Batman franchise and The Brave and the Bold.
At this point, casting The Mandalorian star as a baddie feels a little too predictable and arguably wouldn't hit the same as it might have done a few years ago when Esposito wasn't seemingly taking every villain role offered to him.
In the comics, Dr. Victor Fries was a brilliant cryogenics expert who turned to crime after a lab accident left him unable to survive outside a sub-zero suit. His origin stems from desperation to save his terminally ill wife, Nora, whom he keeps frozen in hopes of finding a cure.
Fries debuted as Mr. Zero in Batman #121 in 1959 and evolved into Mr. Freeze after appearing in the Batman TV series starring Adam West and Batman: The Animated Series. Arnold Schwarzenegger played him in 1997’s Batman & Robin, delivering many an infamous ice pun.
"In my view, I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything," The Batman director Matt Reeves said in 2022. "So to me, it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try and figure out how that could happen, even the idea of something like Mr. Freeze, that is such a great story, right?"
"I think there’s actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great. So, I love the fantastical side of Batman, but this iteration, obviously, while being, to me, I think it is very comics faithful, but I don’t think that this one is necessarily, it doesn’t lean as hard into the fantastical, I guess."
He added, "But I think to me what would be interesting would be to try and unwind the fantastical and see, well, how could that make sense here? And so that’s kind of my view, how I see it."
Do you think Esposito would be a good fit for Mr. Freeze in the DCU or Bat-Verse?