The last we saw of the infamous
Red Skull, he was killed (read: transported into the cosmos) by the Tesseract at the conclusion of
Captain America: The First Avenger. While fans have speculated constantly that subsequent sequels (
The Winter Soldier and
Civil War) would find a secret means to bring the character back, the opportunity never materialized. It also didn't help that actor Hugo Weaving, who played the villain, expressed his
firm reluctance to return.
"...it’s not something I would want to do again. I’m glad I did it. I did sign up for a number of pictures and I suppose, contractually, I would be obliged to, if they forced me to, but they wouldn’t want to force someone to do it, if they didn’t want to."
In a recent interview with
Yahoo, Weaving reflected a little more positively on his time as Captain America's arch-nemesis, having enjoyed the experience and work behind a mask.
"It was fun to play; I enjoyed the outrageousness of the German accent that I employed and I enjoyed the extraordinary mask and costume, even though it was unbelievably hot inside it. I enjoy mask work; I enjoy trying to animate masks and reveal certain things that the mask itself might not reveal. V for Vendetta was another example of that, but there was less animation within that mask versus the Red Skull."
As for making a return to the role, Weaving seems to have softened his stance a little bit, though he still seems slightly hesitant.
"With Marvel, it’s pretty basic stuff: accept the deal and enjoy the ride. It’s not a major stretch for an actor, but on the other hand the difficulty with the Marvel universe is maintaining a link to a human dimension within such an extraordinary, technological CGI universe. In terms of me going back and doing another one, I don’t know. I’m not sure what they’re up to with the Red Skull."
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