Be honest: is it even possible to think of the best, scariest, and most intriguing villains of the last few years without running straight into Giancarlo Esposito? The actor made his final breakthrough Gustavo “Gus” Fring, the psychotic drug lord and restaurant chain owners from Breaking Bad.
Since then, Esposito has played an uncompromising villain in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, caused goosebumps as the dictator in the video game Far Cry 6, and reprized his role as Gus Fring for the final season of Better Call Saul. But according to Esposito, there’s one evil character in his long acting career that stands out: Stan Edgar from The Boys, Amazon’s fantastic superhero satirewhose third season is currently once again causing enthusiasm and disgust.
Giancarlo Esposito’s Stan Edgar has the all-powerful Homelander under his own control in The Boys
The Boys – S03 Teaser Trailer Vought News (English) HD
Stan Edgar is CEO of Vought, the giant company behind the “Seven”, the Avengers of The Boys so to speak. Just in “less moral integrity”. Vought and his superhero team don’t just want to sell a lot of merch and save a life every now and then. The group is primarily about political and military influence and the advancement of the stuff that gives normal people superpowers. The Vought boss will stop at nothing for that.
In an interview with Moviepilot, Giancarlo Esposito summed up his character’s motivation:
Stan Edgar from The Boys has connections to Germany in the past, to scientists and the Nazi regime. From this he develops a focus on money and manipulation in a world where politics and war are pure entertainment. This puts Stan in an interesting situation, he controls his world.
Stan Edgar keeps clashing with Homelander (Antony Starrr), the current one most powerful superheroes in The Boys universe and primary villain. Homelander is unpredictable, mentally unstable and downright dangerous. Nevertheless, even he buckles in front of the ice-cold Stan Edgar.
The Nazi collaborator is the ultimate evil in the eyes of the Breaking Bad star
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Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring in Breaking Bad
At least Giancarlo Esposito doesn’t seem to be surprised. When we asked him in an interview which of his impressive number of villains would scare him the most, he didn’t have to think twice: “Probably the slick business man with the Nazi connectionsbecause his intentions remain hidden.”
This puts his The Boys character even before Gustavo Fring, whose Breaking Bad fate shook the series world to its foundations.
Someone like Stan Edgar corporate evil, is much more dangerous in my eyes. He’s insidious, he’s calculating. Gus Fring is calculating, too, but in a more tragic, profound way.
In the eyes of the actor, Fring seems more human and morally not quite so degenerate. But Stan Edgar also gets significantly more facets away from his manipulative business plans in season 3 of The Boys. And is faced with completely new challenges.
It remains to be seen whether Edgar will also continued to prevail against opponents such as Homelander or fail spectacularly in the end. Like Gus Fring in Breaking Bad.
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In addition to the most unforgettable scenes, in the second part we go into series that appeared after Breaking Bad and themselves can be compared with the hit phenomenon.
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Which Giancarlo Esposito villain do you like the most?