Captain America: Marvel Studios Artist Shares Unused Red Skull Concept Art

The Red Skull made a surprising return in Avengers: Infinity War. Now a Marvel Studios concept artist is looking back on early designs for the villain from Captain America: The First Avenger.

Marvel Studios artist Charlie Wen shared the early Red Skull design on Instagram. In his post, Wen noted how he tried to make Red Skull appear almost alien in order to reflect his inhumane goals.

“Early eccentric Red Skull!” Wen writes. “Like Wacky Loki, I usually pushed in early versions to explore character before we settled on the story. He’s grandiose, and his mission is out of this world, which is why he even looks a bit alien here!”

This artwork was for Red Skull as played by Hugo Weaving in Captain America: The First Avenger. In Avengers: Infinity War, Ross Marquand replaced Weaving as the Skull on the planet Vormir.

Wen has been revealing a series of early Marvel Studios concept pieces. He previously revealed a version of Odin that never quite made it into a Thor movie.

If you’re interested in learning how to paint like the artists at Marvel Studios, there’s an upcoming book for you. How to Paint Characters the Marvel Studios Way reveals the process of creating characters for the MCU as told by the artists themselves. Here’s a description from Marvel:

“Within the stunning pages of this keepsake book, readers will learn these artists’ favorite tools of the trade, their tips for visual character development, their process of collaborating with filmmakers and other artists on the team, and the costume and props departments—and how it all comes together to create seamless film designs! Each five-ten page ‘character study’ will take readers on a step-by-step journey through the artist’s approach to bringing a specific hero or villain to life. Not only will readers get a sense of how each artist works, from their tools to their process, they’ll also get to see how a character’s design was created—from blank page to a final approval!”

Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019; Avengers 4 on May 3, 2019; Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th, 2019.