The Red Skull first appeared in the pages of the Captain America comic books all the way back in 1941, and has shown some incredible staying power to remain one of Marvel’s most enduring and iconic villains ever since. As such, the character was an obvious choice to play the antagonist when Cap finally came to the big screen in The First Avenger, with Hugo Weaving still managing to chew the scenery even under heavy prosthetics.
To the surprise of many fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Red Skull reappeared in both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame as well, acting as the gatekeeper of the Soul Stone on Vormir, although this time played by The Walking Dead’s Ross Marquand after Weaving declined the opportunity to reprise the role. Now, a source close to We Got This Covered – the same one who told us Taskmaster would be the villain in Black Widow and that a She-Hulk TV series was in the works – has informed us that Marvel Studios are looking to bring the character back into the MCU in the near future, and not just for a cameo appearance this time.
While Ross Marquand would likely be receptive to getting into the makeup chair again to reprise the role, how exactly could the Red Skull rejoin the wider MCU following the events of Endgame? Well, the last we saw of the character, he was still stuck on Vormir, which would have led to a very awkward encounter with his arch-nemesis when Steve Rogers appeared out of nowhere to give him back the Soul Stone.
Looking at both the Red Skull’s current location in the MCU and the upcoming slate of Phase Four and Phase Five projects though, he seems most likely to reappear in one of the studio’s cosmic efforts. Johann Schmidt’s alter-ego could conceivably be written into The Eternals given their Celestial connections, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for obvious reasons, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 given his history with both Thanos and Gamora or possibly Captain Marvel 2. Our source has told us that that last film is a definite possibility, but can’t confirm just yet which movie he’ll appear in next.
In any case, it’ll be interesting to see how Marvel Studios handle the reintroduction of one of the crown jewels of their rogues’ gallery, given that Red Skull has been sorely underutilized in the franchise so far.
