Hugo Weaving Explains Why He Didn’t Return As Red Skull For ‘Avengers’ Sequels
One of the biggest surprises inAvengers: Infinity War, besides the sudden deaths of half the superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was the return ofCaptain America: The First Avengervillain Red Skull. Just as surprising was thatHugo Weavingdidn’t reprise his role as the Nazi villain, but was replaced byRoss Marquand. It was assumed that the reason Weaving didn’t come back was because hedidn’t sound particularly thrilledat the prospect, but now the actor has revealed the real reason for his absence in theAvengerssequels.
Speaking withTime Out London, Weaving revealed that he actually enjoyed playing Red Skull inCaptain America: The First Avengers, but it was standard Hollywood negotiating that left him out of theAvengerssequels. Weaving said:
Weaving is right to stand his ground and wanting what Marvel had promised by paying him more than what he got for the firstCaptain Americamovie. He knows his worth. But at the same time, the role in both of theAvengersmovies was not nearly as significant asCaptain America: The First Avenger. Weaving wasn’t required to sit in the make-up chair for hours, and it sounds like he didn’t even have to be on set. Furthermore, the scenes in question don’t even require many lines.
From Marvel’s perspective, there’s no reason to pay more money for an actor when you can have someone like Ross Marquand come in and do such a good job voicing Red Skull that you have almost no idea that it’s not Hugo Weaving again. However, it’s not as if Marvel Studios is hurting for money, raking in over at least a billion dollars every year for a while now. So maybe they could have given Weaving what he wanted and the performance might have been that much better. Perhaps there’s a chance we’ll get Red Skull back in a different capacity in the future. You never know when villains are going to return in the MCU.
