Red Skull (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

"You are deluded Captain. You pretend to be a simple soldier but in reality you are afraid to admit that we have left humanity behind. Unlike you I embrace it proudly, without fear!"

- Red Skull to Captain America Johann Schmidt, known as the supervillain The Red Skull, is the main antagonist in the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger and a posthumous antagonist in the 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He is also briefly mentioned in the TV series Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. Red Skull was the leader of HYDRA during the Second World War.

He was portrayed by the legendary actor, Hugo Weaving, who also played Agent Smith in the Matrix films, and Megatron in the Transformers film series.

Captain America: The First Avenger
In this adaption, Schmidt forces 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, Arnim Zola develops advanced weapons, that Skull believes will aid in winning the World War. Several high-ranking SS officers come to check upon his plan, Schmidt intends to bomb every major capital on Earth, including Berlin. This rages the officers and Schmidt kills them in order to break free from the Nazi Party. In the meantime, Dr. Erskine uses his finished serum on Steve Rogers, who becomes Captain America, but not before that Heinz Kruger, an undercover assassin kills Erskine. Captain begins to take down HYDRA bases after seeing a map of the locations from saving Bucky, with Skull finally retreating to his last base in the Swiss Alps. He begins his plan and flies the Valkyrie, his Tesseract powered plane into bombing the United States. Rogers infiltrates the plane and starts a one-on-one battle with Schmidt. Schmidt touches the Tesseract and seemingly disintegrates, leaving his ultimate fate unknown.

Marvel's Agents of Shield
Schmidt is mentioned several times by Daniel Whitehall, the series' incarnation of Commander Kraken.

Personality
Johann Schmidt is a megalomaniac and egocentric genius who firmly believes in the Nazis' misinterpretation of Nietzsche's Übermensch (over-man) concept where a race of superhuman beings are destined to rule the normal ones. Believing himself to be such a man, he used any means necessary to obtain a central position in Adolf Hitler's army, until his conceit made him arrive to the point of believing himself to be greater than Hitler, and thus starting a plan to overthrow him. Unlike other Nazis, Schmidt doesn't believe that the Germans are the destined "master race", but rather that the superior man has yet to be made. In large part because he didn't believe the Germans were the destined 'master race', he also did not personally care to follow the Nazis' infamous holocaust plan against the Jewish race (although he nonetheless used it as a threat against Abraham Erskine to force him to make the serum).

Schmidt is pitiless and cruel, but also a scientific genius, who is able to see beyond appearances and managed to see the truth behind myths believed to be superstition, which are, in reality, fragments of Asgardian origin.

Schmidt was said to be a fully-fledged supporter of the Nazi Party until the incident which left him deformed. The truth is that he worked with the Nazis only so he could use their resources to achieve his own goals, and no longer seemed to share the racial ideals of Nazism. He claims that he was isolated to his palace in the Alps because he "no longer shares Hitler's image of Aryan Perfection". Though he is disillusioned by the Führer's ideals, he is still morally devoid and capable of mass murder. Once a mere professor at the university in Berlin, Schmidt became a cold-blooded killer who would do anything to accomplish his goals. Even his subordinate officers had reasons to fear him as Schmidt had an extremely low tolerance of failure: If they didn't do their job right, death was the only penalty he would give to those who failed him.

Trivia

 * 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).
 * In the comics, Johann Shmidt was Adolf Hitler's right hand, second in command and personal assassin. Originally, he had no relationships with HYDRA, although he helped Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (the original HYDRA's director) to escape from Germany and to organize HYDRA in the Japanese-occupied territory in the final days of World War II.
 * This version of the Red Skull has more in common with Wolfgang von Strucker and Wilhelm Lohmer from the comics than the Johann Schmidt: He had a falling out with Hitler and founded the modern incarnation of HYDRA, much like von Strucker in the comics; and he is the Axis foil to Captain America: enhanced by a variant of the Super-Soldier Serum, like Lohmer (also known as Master Man) in the comics.
 * The Red Skull is currently the only villain in the MCU who has an undecided fate.
 * The Red Skull is currently rumored to return despite his portrayer Hugo Weaving refusing to reprise the role even though he enjoyed it.

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Red Skull (Marvel Cinematic Universe)