Who Is Sidewinder, Giancarlo Esposito’s ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Character

Giancarlo Esposito’s character in Captain America: Brave New World has been revealed.

Esposito finally told fans about his character at Hall H at the San Diego Comic-Con Saturday, according to Entertainment Weekly. As he said, “Can I say it? Wow! I can finally unleash it. I am the King of the Serpent Society. I am Sidewinder!”

But, who is Sidewinder? Well, the first clue is that, as Esposito said, the character is the leader of the Serpent Society, a group of evil snake-themed villains who are centered around the magical Serpent Crown. According to Entertainment Weekly and Den of Geeks , Sidewinder’s real name is Seth Voelker, a fired economics college professor who then becomes an undercover criminal for the evil Roxxon Oil Company. One of his tasks is to find the Serpent Crown, which is connected to the god Set. The holder of the crown also is granted immortality, mind control, and is also given a teleportation cloak.

The Serpent Society itself is not a good group of people, but incredibly, the group becomes a supervillain union. The Serpent Society was originally a group of mercenaries Roxxon’s president put under Sidewinder’s control. The group’s members–all of which have snake names–include Death Adder, Anaconda, Cottonmouth, Asp, Black Mamba, Princess Python, Diamondback, Viper and Rattler.

While the Sidewinder of the comics has a look that appears to be a Red Mask/snake hybrid, Captain America: Brave New World clearly has a much more human look for the character. The character is also much more grounded, with Esposito telling EW his character is “a complicated guy who didn’t start in a nefarious way.”

“He came to this in a different way, which hopefully will unfold,” he continued. “I like it for me because you’ve seen me play certain villainous characters who use their brain, who are great at dictating what to do and how to do it. I like Sidewinder because he’s a physical guy. He’s got to go toe-to-toe with his physicality and he knows how to use the tools of his trade. So he’s someone who plays against some of the things in the comic that you may think could be true.”

Captain America: Brave New World comes to theaters Feb. 14, 2025.