It may be a while before there will be a new main timeline X-Men being introduced into the MCU, however this has not stopped fans from looking to fan-cast or even for actors to have their own ideas for Marvel roles.
Mutants have been introduced in the Ms. Marvel series, Namor being the first mutant in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and an alternate universe featuring Patrick Stewart; reprising as another variant of Charles Xavier. She-Hulk has also name-dropped “X-Men” when asking K.E.V.I.N in the series finale “When are we getting the X-Men?”.
A few actors are being are being fan-cast for the next iteration, especially fans who have been wanting Giancarlo Esposito to either portray Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four, Magneto or Professor X in X-Men.
This fan-cast has reached the attention of Esposito himself, on multiple occassions during conventions and the actor has also expressed interest in being part of the MCU.
At Atlanta Comic Convention 2023, Giancarlo Esposito was asked about both roles and the Breaking Bad star has one main condition about getting the role of Charles Xavier.
Oh my gosh, be careful what you ask for, because it may come true! So the fans started blowing up the fact that there was a possibility for me to play Professor X and I have met with Marvel a while ago and I told that story. It was about possibly playing Loki in a TV show and I wanted to do a movie with Marvel, and that got out there and the fans blew it up.
I like the idea of Doom, I like the idea of Magneto, I like the idea of Freeze…. sadly they’re not ready to do any of those yet.
[Professor] X I would like to play, I think he’s a complicated person… and I know they wanna re-envision that. I have questions about being in a wheelchair. I’m an active dude… so I don’t know, I know X wasn’t always in a wheelchair. I have ideas about how to get him out of the chair and have that chair be a different chair than what we think it has been.
Giancarlo Esposito, speaking at ATL Comic Con 2023.
Esposito’s one condition is that he doesn’t want his Professor X performance to be limited to being in a wheelchair. Also, from what I can understand about the last part that he’s said, it seems the chair could be some form of mental contruct to deal with instead of a physical chair?
Giancarlo Esposito has been most known for his villainous roles in shows such as Breaking Bad, The Mandolorian, The Boys and will soon be voicing a character in the upcoming animated movie TMNT: Mutant Mayhem.
The quote can be found @14:45 during the video.