As you surely know by now, Avengers: Endgame sees the return of Red Skull, who’s once more seen carrying out his duties as the keeper of the Soul Stone on Vormir. And while it would’ve been exciting to see Johann Schmidt cross paths with his old nemesis Captain America, Endgame instead sends Black Widow and Hawkeye off to acquire the stone, leaving Steve Rogers out of the picture and not bringing him into contact with Red Skull.
At least, not at that moment. You see, at the end of the film, Cap goes back in time to return all the Infinity Stones to where they belong, so as not to mess up the other timeline. And though his journey is left up to our imagination, save for that final scene of Steve back with Peggy Carter, we imagine that when he went to Vormir to put the Soul Stone back, he had his long-awaited reunion with Red Skull.
But what would that encounter have been like? Well, like we said, it was left to our imagination, but co-director Joe Russo has now weighed in on it, saying the following:
“Red Skull would probably put the soul stone back to its location, and wait for the next unfortunate stone seeker to make a sacrifice. Cap and Red Skull probably won’t fight. It’s because it’s his mission to return the stone to its original place. The Red Skull is also no longer the same Red Skull from FA. He is more like a ghost, you could almost say he’s a completely different entity now. He only exists to guard the stone, his past conscious may or may not exist anymore.”
So, they may not have fought, but no doubt fans still would’ve loved to have seen the two characters meet again. We’re sure the Russo brothers had their reasons for not showing us that particular reunion though and for now, we’ll just have to conjure up in our minds what it would’ve been like.
And who knows? The directors have teased that there may still be more Captain America movies after Avengers: Endgame, so perhaps we’ll one day see Steve’s mission to put all the stones back and finally get to witness his long-awaited reunion with Red Skull. Fingers crossed, eh?
