I've seen the Sneak Peek trailer, but I have a theory that the twist reveal in
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is that
Alexander Pierce is
The Red Skull.
First hint I got to this was Redford saying that Pierce was a villain in
The Winter Soldier.
“I like the idea of playing a villain…I did that just because it’s a different thing for me to do.”[Source]
This is not really much to go on, in the comics Pierce is good; but then again the Iron Patriot armor was originally worn by Norman Osborn. So we can't exactly say one is the other. Marvel and their film making team love throwing us curveballs. I think this would be a great one, if you do the research you'll probably assume that the movie version of Pierce will follow Earth-616's version who is good. Tricky move, but it could work.
Secondly, came the line from the sneak peek, where Pierce says the following:
"To build a better world, it means tearing the old one down. This makes enemies"
Now, if we're assuming that this Pierce is an exact adaption of Earth-616's this seems kind of odd doesn't it. This sounds like Red Skull talk. Destroying the world, rebuilding on that foundation of what is destroyed. That sounds like HYDRA and Skull to me, not that of a good guy working for SHIELD. Again, maybe I could be wrong, but I can't imagine Pierce, a Good guy, saying stuff like that.
Finally, there's the 'Winter Soldier' episode of
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes where it's revealed that Red Skull has remained active and alive, while infiltrating the US as Dell Rusk, a man who eventually becomes Secretary of Defense.
It could be that instead of Dell Rusk, the Russo brothers and Marvel are adapting a similar story for
The Winter Soldier where it will be revealed Alexander Pierce, (as) The Red Skull, has infiltrated SHIELD and is manipulating the agency and many other government institutions to further his goals -- along the way using The Winter Soldier as a tool.
Only time will tell if I'm right or not, but I do think I have a few good pieces of evidence to believe this could be the case; and having the Red Skull be stuck in the past just seems wrong. I've always enjoyed the idea with Cap that the sins of the past continue to haunt him in the future.
What do you guys think? Do you think Alexander Pierce is Red Skull? Sound off in the comments below, please consider thumbing this article up, and as always, follow me on Twitter @The_Hulksta where you can follow my shenanigans and read more of my articles.