Johann Schmidt, aka The Red Skull, made an unexpected appearance in Avengers: Infinity War as a wraith figure guarding the Soul Stone. Actor Ross Marquand reprised the role in Avengers: Endgame, and has revealed how he was instructed to play the character originated by Hugo Weaving in Captain America: The First Avenger.

"[The Russo Bros.] came to me and said we want you to take Hugo's Red Skull and infuse him with a bit of Yoda," Marquand told Nerds4Life. "He's a wise soul, he's 84 years older, and he's also an apparition. He's kind of a ghost at this point."

"He's no longer the diabolical, ambitious man that we know him as in 1944. He's a complicated anti-hero," Marquand continued. "I thought that was such a fun take on him, because he's just so broken -- he's a cursed man, and I love playing that."

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In Captain America: The First Avenger, the Red Skull had vanished after touching the Tesseract during the film's finale. The Tesseract was later revealed to be a containment housing for the Space Stone, which in addition to the Soul Stone was one of the six Infinity Gems coveted by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. That film revealed Schmidt had been changed to an ethereal being and transported to the remote world of Vormir, home of the Soul Stone.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Don Cheadle as War Machine, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Danai Gurira as Okoye and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, with Gwyneth Paltrow Pepper Potts, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Benedict Wong as Wong, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Josh Brolin as Thanos. The film is available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD.

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