Red Skull

✔

This villain named Red Skull is Pure Evil -
This certain villain is pure evil, meaning it has no any reedeming qualities. Dark deatails may follow.

## Behind the Scenes

### Voiced by

Ross Marquand

**Johann Schmidt**, also known as the **Red Skull** and later the **Stonekeeper**, is a major antagonist in the *Marvel Cinematic Universe*. He served as the main antagonist of *Captain America: The First Avenger*, a mentioned antagonist in both *Captain America: The Winter Soldier* and *Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, and a minor character in both *Avengers: Infinity War* and *Avengers: Endgame*.

In *The First Avenger*, he was portrayed by Hugo Weaving, who also portrayed Agent Smith in the *Matrix* series and Megatron in the *Transformers* film series. In *Infinity War* and *Endgame*, he was portrayed by Ross Marquand.

## History

### Early Life

Nothing much is really known about his early life, other than he was born in Germany, and joined SS during the 1930's. He then created the science division of Nazi Germany, known as HYDRA.

### Marvel Cinematic Universe

#### Captain America: The First Avenger

Starting off as a Nazi SS officer serving for Adolf Hitler, Schmidt intends to further Hitler's goals of taking over the world by forcing Dr. Abraham Erskine to use his Super Soldier Serum on him. The unfinished serum caused a side-effect that left him deformed, forcing the Skull to wear a rubber mask of his former self. At the beginning of the movie, Red Skull travels to Norway, to obtain the Tesseract. Using its powers, Schmidt gets his right-hand scientist Arnim Zola to develop advanced weapons, that will aid in winning the World War II. When three high-ranking SS officers (Roeder, Hutter & Schneider) come to check upon Schmidt's progress, they are horrified to learn that Schmidt intends to bomb every major capital on Earth (including Berlin), making them realize that Schmidt and the rest of HYDRA have defected from the Nazis. To cement HYDRA as an independent group, Schmidt uses his weapons to kill the three officers.

In the meantime, Dr. Erskine uses his finished serum on a U.S. Army soldier named Steve Rogers, who becomes Captain America. However, Schmidt sends over an assassin named Heinz Kruger to kill Erskine. Following Kruger's suicide, Rogers begins to take a HYDRA base after learning that his best friend Bucky Barnes is held there, prisoner. After freeing Barnes and the other prisoners, Rogers confronted Schmidt, who sets the base to explode while escaping with Zola. Forming up his own unit alongside Barnes, Rogers led a series of attacks against many HYDRA bases, much to Schmidt's frustration, he even vaporized his henchman Velt after learning that the latter survived one of Rogers' attacks. Following Barnes' supposed death and Zola's arrest, Schmidt retreated to his last base in the Swiss Alps, where he has a giant plane that holds several bombs that can destroy the world capitals. Fortunately, Rogers gets his unit to infiltrate the base and take down Schmidt's remaining forces. After boarding the plane, Rogers engages in a fight against Schmidt before defeating him by damaging the Tesseract Cradle containing the Tesseract. In a panic, Schmidt grabs the Tesseract but seemingly disintegrates as it is too powerful for him to control, leaving his ultimate fate unknown.

#### Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Schmidt was mentioned in the film as Rogers discussed his past experience with Schmidt to Natasha Romanoff, a statement confirmed by Zola (who transferred his consciousness into a system after dying from a terminal illness in 1972). Before his death, Zola revealed that he created an algorithm for a secret operation called Project Insight that can take out millions of people who are opposed to HYDRA's belief. Rogers and Romanoff soon learned that U.S. Secretary of Defense Alexander Pierce is in charge of the operation as he intends to finish off what Schmidt started. Fortunately, Rogers gets his friends within S.H.I.E.L.D. to foil the operation while Pierce ends up being shot to death by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury.

#### Avengers: Infinity War

In the film, it is revealed that Schmidt was never vaporized by the Tesseract, but instead, he was transported to the planet Vormir, where he became the guardian of the Soul Stone as punishment for his crimes. As part of his punishment, Schmidt was forbidden to take the Soul Stone for himself since his greed for the Tesseract is what led to his defeat, a fate that he accepted with resignation. After seven decades, the mad warlord Thanos traveled to Vormir with his adoptive daughter Gamora (a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy) to retrieve the Soul Stone, as Thanos intends to collect all six Infinity Stones (including the Tesseract) to wipe out half of the universe's populace.

After explaining his past life to Thanos and Gamora, Schmidt states that he will give Thanos the Soul Stone, but only if he is willing to sacrifice a loved one of his. While Gamora scoffs at this as she believes that Thanos does not care for others, Thanos reveals that he truly cares for Gamora; even Schmidt points out that the tears that Thanos is shedding are only for Gamora, not for himself. Realizing this, a horrified Gamora attempts to commit suicide, but Thanos foils this by using the Reality Stone, saying that he once ignored his goal for someone he cared for and that he will not make the same mistake for Gamora. Thanos reluctantly throws Gamora off the cliff to her death, and upon witnessing this, Schmidt willingly gave the Soul Stone to Thanos as agreed.

After Thanos wiped out half of the universe, Red Skull became free from the curse placed on him and is now able to leave Vormir whenever he wants, leaving him to start his own potential pursuit on the Infinity Stones. However, three weeks later, Thanos destroyed the Stones before he was killed by the surviving Avengers, leaving Red Skull's pursuit in vain.

#### Avengers: Endgame

After learning how to time travel via through the Quantum Realm, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff travel back in time to retrieve the Soul Stone before Thanos could. Learning that the location of the Soul Stone was on the planet Vormir, they travelled to said planet in the year 2014, where they met the Red Skull for the first time. Like with Thanos, Red Skull was willing to offer them the Soul Stone, only if one of them were willing to sacrifice the one thing they truly cared for. After a rough clash between Barton and Romanoff, Romanoff ultimately sacrifices herself, and Red Skull gives Barton the Soul Stone as agreed.

After everyone that had perished were brought back to life while Thanos from the past was defeated, Steve Rogers traveled back in time to return the Infinity Stones back to their original time periods. While heading to Vormir, he encountered the Red Skull again, but rather than engaging into a fight, Rogers instead ordered the Red Skull to take the Soul Stone and put it back where it belongs, leaving this version of Red Skull trapped on Vormir, as in this timeline, Thanos never came to obtain the Soul Stone.

## Role in Movie Wars

### Season 1

#### The Beginning

Red Skull appears as one of the villains.

#### Assembling

Although not appearing physically, Red Skull's name and profile appears on the list of villains to be requited by Darth Vader.

## Trivia

* Red Skull is a recurring character in Movie Wars, frequently appearing since the first episode.
* Red Skull appears to be the evil opposite of S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Nick Fury.
	+ Both are the most commonly known leaders of rival organazations.
	+ Both have a rather long history with Captain America: Schmidt was the main archenemy of Rogers, while Fury was the one who found him in the ice, requited him into the Avengers and worked with him in S.H.I.E.L.D.
	+ Both are bald, althrough this can be less considered.
	+ Both mostly wear black coats.
	+ Both were thought to be deceased for a time: Schmidt was semmingly disintegrated by the Teserract, but was actually transported to Vormir and Fury was thought to have been assasinated by the Winter Solider, but in reality, he faked his death to survive the HYDRA inflitration of S.H.I.E.L.D.
* Although the character's more well-known name is Red Skull, *Captain America: The First Avenger* primarily refers to him by his real name of Johann Schmidt, with his main name of Red Skull only being referenced once in the film (when one of his Nazi's superiors, on Hitler's behalf, were scolding him for his recent actions).
* Before the role was ultimately given to Ross Marquand, Hugo Weaving was overall unsure whether he wanted to return to the role or not, despite signing a contract stating he would do multiple films and that he enjoyed the role. When *Captain America: Civil War* was released, his thoughts still remained the same, but at the same time stated that there's a possibility of the circumstances being changed.
	+ Hugo Weaving revealed that the Russo Brothers had reached out to him regarding if he wanted the role for *Avengers: Infinity War*, but Weaving declined it as the amount of money he was being offered was less than what he received when he first starred in *Captain America: The First Avenger*; an agreement that went against his initial contract.
	+ Ross Marquand spent about ten days to perfect his voice, based on Hugo Weaving's portrayal and the directions that the Russo brothers gave him. He did not portray the character on set, however, as the Red Skull was portrayed on set with stunt actors and CGI.
* Due to Barton obtaining the Soul Stone in *Avengers: Endgame*, this likely created an alternate timeline where Red Skull was freed from the curse much earlier than before Thanos' inevitable arrival. However, because Rogers was able to return the Soul Stone right after it was taken, this timeline was likely erased. Regardless, since all of the Infinity Stones were destroyed from the original timeline, including the Soul Stone, Red Skull is free from his curse.

## Gallery

Red SkullRed Skull as the Stonekeeper. (2018)Red Skull as the Stonekeeper. (2014)