Hugo Weaving is one of the most recognizable actors in Hollywood. The Australian actor is known for his antagonist roles. He has played Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy, voiced Megatron in Transformers, played Elrond in the Lord of the Rings films, and was the protagonist in V For Vendetta.
The actor is also known for his portrayal of Red Skull in the MCU. He appeared as the antagonist to Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger. While his character and its variants appear in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Weaving chose not to return as he had a hard time negotiating with the studio.
Also read:Matrix 4: Lana Wachowski Stopped Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith Return
Hugo Weaving As The Red Skull
In Captain America: The First Avenger, Hugo Weaving plays Johann Schmidt, the leader of the Nazi terrorist organization Hydra. The film is set during World War 2 and Schmidt is Adolf Hitler’s head of advanced weaponry. He wants the Tesseract to win the war and wants to use it for world domination, overthrowing Hitler.
Hugo Weaving’s Schmidt takes a version of the super-soldier serum that turns Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers into Captain America. This gives Schmidt a skull-like appearance, which he covers with a face mask. The appearance gives him the moniker Red Skull. He acts as a formidable foe to Captain America.
Hugo Weaving said that he based his performance of Red Skull on German director Werner Herzog and Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. Weaving also mentioned how he felt the super serum affected Red Skull’s personality, saying the serum enhanced his ego and power hunger while it enhanced Steve Rogers’ inherent goodness.
Captain America: The First Avenger was a success at the box office, earning over $370 million globally. It established Chris Evans as one of the leaders of the MCU and introduced many pivotal characters such as Bucky Barnes, Peggy Carter, and Howard Stark. Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull is often considered to be one of the better villains of the MCU.
Why Didn’t Hugo Weaving Return As The Red Skull?
Hugo Weaving only appeared as Johann Schmit a.k.a Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger. After the events of the film, Red Skull is transported to planet Vormir to guard the Soul Stone. He appears in Avenger: Infinity War, where he meets Thanos and Gamorra, who have come in search of the soul stone. He guides them through the tragic process of obtaining it.
Weaving does not appear in the film. The actor has mentioned that despite the great role, it was just not something he was excited about. In an interview with Collider (via Slash Film), he said,
“I think I’ve done my dash with that sort of film. It was good to do it and try it out, but to be honest, it’s not the sort of film I seek out and really am excited by. As an actor, to do all sorts of different films is great…But, I increasingly like to go back to what I used to always do, which is to get involved with projects that I really have a personal affiliation with.”
However, there also seems to be a different reason why Hugo Weaving did not appear in the film and it seems to be because of Marvel Studio not offering enough pay. In an interview with Time Out, Weaving mentioned that he had signed on for three films but he figured his character would not return in a Captain America film. But apparently, by the time the Avengers films were in development, the studio was pushing back on the actor’s contracts. He said,
“By then, they’d pushed back on the contracts that we agreed on and so the money they offered me for ‘The Avengers’ was much less than I got for the very first one, and this was for two films. And the promise when we first signed the contracts was that the money would grow each time.”
The actor mentioned that the studio tried to reduce his fee by saying that it was just a voice cameo. Weaving said that he had a tough time negotiating with the studio and hence chose not to return for the role.
Source: Time Out
