Hugo Weaving Reveals Why He Really Didn’t Return as Red Skull in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame

In a move that surprised most Marvel fans, Marvel Studios brought back Captain America villain Red Skull in a new role in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The character first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: The First Avenger as played by Hugo Weaving. The Hydra scientist tampered with the power of the Tesseract and the Space Stone repaid him by teleporting him to Vormir. But Weaving didn’t play Red Skull in the Avengers movies. Instead, Ross Marquand took over the character in his new role as guardian of the Soul Stone.

In an interview with TimeOut, Weaving explains why he didn’t return to the role in the two Avengers films, claiming that Marvel Studios tried to hedge on the agreement established when he first signed on to play the villain. “Oh, yeah. I loved playing that character Red Skull – it was a lot of fun,” Weaving says. “We were all obliged to sign up for three pictures: I was thinking [Red Skull] probably wouldn’t come back in Captain America but he may well come back as a villain in The Avengers. By then, they’d pushed back on the contracts that we agreed on and so the money they offered me for The Avengers was much less than I got for the very first one, and this was for two films. And the promise when we first signed the contracts was that the money would grow each time. They said: It’s just a voice job, it’s not a big deal. I actually found negotiating with them through my agent impossible. And I didn’t really wanna do it that much. But I would have done it.”

Red Skull’s role in Avengers was minor compared to his role in Captain America: The First Avenger, acting more as a guide than a true villain. Still, Marquand was happy to step into the role and wouldn’t mind an opportunity to reprise the character. “I loved playing Red Skull, I hope I can come back and play him again. We’ll see,” Marquand said during a 2018 convention appearance.

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1st, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6th, WandaVision in 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk are also in the works for Disney+.