Giancarlo Esposito Is Bouncing Back From His Canceled Series With A Gangster Remake
Giancarlo is set to star in a remake of a gangster series. He is one of the best out there and this could be a perfect role for the actor.
Most of the world knows him as “Gus,” back when he laundered all of his meth money from Los Pollos Hermanos in Breaking Bad. But now Giancarlo Esposito will be going by a new name in a remake of a British gangster drama The Driver which will be produced by AMC. The network is a familiar haunt for Esposito, who is known as a star of TV, film, and now video games because AMC was the home of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul that both featured his entrepreneurial scary man character. “I am over the moon excited, enthused, and inspired to be in collaboration with the stellar network and creative team of AMC!” Esposito said. “Thanks for believing in me. It’s great to be back home!”
The newly greenlit series will be co-produced by Thruline Entertainment, which coincidentally produced a 2021 movie called Psych 3: This is Gus taken from the USA network TV series of the same name. It will star Giancarlo Esposito, a misanthrope taxi driver whose life is about to go for the ride of his life when he chauffeurs a New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster. And that’s how the six-part series will begin. It turns out that the underworld boss hailing rides from our friendly driver is known for “exploiting undocumented immigrants at the U.S. ports.” So, it’s already got a few people in Washington D.C. that will be interested in this, at least.
Most recently, Giancarlo Esposito was making headlines on The Mandalorian as Moff Gideon. Not only did he make news for his convincing portrayal as the swashbuckling warlord of the Galactic Empire wielding that sweet Darksaber, but because of how he looked. If you notice, the past number of Sith lords or Empire overlords are usually white. There wasn’t an outcry in Disney or Star Wars nation (lately), but it was a corrective measure Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy sought to change in their runaway streaming hit series.
“Well, it means a lot to me because I’ve strived in my career to be colorless,” the actor told IndieWire. “I am of mixed race, half Italian, half African American, and I grew through the period where I was relegated to playing thieves and thugs. I learned how to do a Spanish accent, to play Spanish street characters, who were murderers, killers, robbers, the like. So for me, it’s a crowning moment when I could get a phone call from Jon Favreau, to say, ‘I wrote a role for you.’”
As many expect of Giancarlo Esposito, who is looking to join another legacy brand in Marvel, owning the role will happen in the AMC series. Even Theo Travers, showrunner of the news series and featured writers for other hit series like Billions, Power, and House of Lies is giddy about striking a deal with the man. In an official statement from AMC, Travers called The Driver “a high-voltage, dark identity quest for an everyman trying to find renewed purpose in his life.” He went on to say about the lead character, “We’re rooting for Vince as he goes down this wild and nihilistic route to discover who he once was, and in many ways still is, because it gets him out of a stuck place.” Another coincidence is the “driver’s” name is Vince; it is not an homage to Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.
Initially, this was a BBC series in 2014 that starred Philip “The Governor” Blake from The Walking Dead. David Morrisey, who pretty much rocks TV series through his career with Sherwood, The Missing, and The Field of Blood, was featured in this three-part miniseries. Giancarlo Esposito will also serve as Executive Producer for The Driver. Danny Brocklehurst and Sunu Gonera will recreate the six-episode season. Brocklehurst is familiar with the product as the showrunner for the original, which he created with Jim Poyser (Shameless, Timewasters). The show will be slated for AMC and AMC+ in 2023.
