Is The Red Skull Destined To Return To The MCU In 'Thor: Ragnarok'?

When Thor: Ragnarok opens in theaters later this year, be prepared for a number of surprises to unfold. The movie's plot has been teasing a major conflict between Thor and Hela as a fight for control of Asgard is being held, but that's not the only action the movie has to offer. In addition to Hela waging war on Asgard, Skurge, Surtur, and the Grandmaster are just a few iconic villains that are slated to pop up alongside her. However, one more fan favorite bad guy shouldn't be counted out of the fight just yet: Red Skull.

The Wormholes on Sakarr are the key to Red Skull's whereabouts.

Before you stop reading, hear me out. The Red Skull could feasibly show up in Thor: Ragnarok because the majority of the film's event takes place on an alien planet known as Sakarr. Said planet is littered with wormhole entrances that could have seen Red Skull dropped through one of them when he was shot into space during Captain America: The First Avenger.

For those who don't remember, a wormhole opened up in the Red Skull's carrier plane after the Tesseract begin to release an erratic energy. He attempted to grab the artifact and manipulate its power, but the Tesseract/Space Stone wound up transporting him to an unknown location in space. No information on his whereabouts were revealed at the time, so that scene left us all questioning where he went. Even Hugo Weaving, the actor who plays Red Skull has no idea if he's ever going to come back.

Weaving has been asked on numerous occasions whether or not he'll reprise his role, but he always gives a very vague answer—which we can't blame him for. Marvel actors usually have to remain very tight-lipped about their roles in the MCU, so Weaving probably wouldn't say anything even if he knew. The good news is that we may not need Weaving to say anything if Thor: Ragnarok holds the key to Red Skull's whereabouts like we suspect it does.

Is Sakarr the central for Wormholes in the MCU?

An image of the Grandmaster's palace in the Ragnarok trailer depicts another area of Sakarr littered with wormholes as well, providing a clear image of the openings in the sky. In most cases, they would seem insignificant, but when paired with the aspect of Sakarr being a waypoint for them, it's fair to assume that the planet is heavily influenced by them dropping people and debris onto the planet.

Thor can be seen landing in a heap of debris when he falls through one himself. We can't say with certainty that Thor ended up here because of the wormholes, but seeing as how the trailer depicts him falling out of the Bifrost, there's a pretty good chance he fell off the Rainbow Bridge and into trashcan of the universe: Sakarr. If that is in fact what caused Thor to land on said planet, it's just as feasible for Red Skull to have been shipped here as well.

Some fans will probably argue that the wormhole opened up in The First Avenger could've sent the Red Skull to any number of locations in the universe, including the Multiverse—which is a fair assumption since we didn't see where he was taken. But, after closer examination of the Tesseract scene from Captain America: The First Avenger, it doesn't show Red Skull being sent to the Yggdrasil tree or any other dimension for that matter.

Instead, he's shot into the vast emptiness of space, without a specific destination in mind. This leads me to believe Red Skull wound up being thrown into the dumpster of the universe. Sakarr also seems to be a more plausible destination than any other location because it may be one of the planets that Kevin Feige talked about existing outside of the Nine Realms.

We learned early on that the events of Thor: Ragnarok would go beyond the nine known dimensions of the MCU to explore the unknown. Said location hasn't been identified yet but Sakarr is a feasible candidate- assuming the planet is the collective meeting point for anomalies, like wormholes. Its strange atmosphere and dimensional anomalies do give us the impression that the planet is a galactic trash can of sorts, where wormholes drop all sorts of unwanted debris floating in space. Images of Thor in the second trailer show him standing amidst piles of debris directly under a wormhole, backing up claims of Sakarr being the trash bin of the universe. Kevin Feige talked about the new territories during an interview with Screenrant. Here's what he had to say:

“I don’t know about branching off from this, but certainly inhabiting similar areas from this. A lot of our upcoming movies will. I mean the upcoming movies will be as much up here, as they are on Earth, starting with not Spider-Man, starting with Thor: Ragnarok. There are three scenes on Earth in Thor: Ragnarok. Everything else is Asgard, and not all of these worlds, but world that certainly, let’s put it this way, in Thor lingo, it’s beyond the nine realms. There are other planets that we spend a lot of time on in Thor: Ragnarok, that certainly people would say, ‘oh, that’s sort of like the Guardians world’, but they’re just other areas of the Marvel cosmos universe.”

With Kevin Feige's comments in mind, the prospect of Red Skull being shipped off to Sakarr by the Tesseract doesn't seem far-fetched. That large wormhole in front of Banner and Thor in the image below doesn't look like anything we've seen so far, which has lead me to believe that it's the main entrance into the Nine Realms. Valkyrie can also be seen piloting her ship into the breach, adding yet more evidence of it being an entry point of some kind. Therefore, Sakarr's wormholes could in fact hold the key to Red Skull's whereabouts.

Another reason why Sakarr could be the drop-off point for the Red Skull is because the planet appears to be completely controlled by the Grandmaster. Since he's manipulating the planet to host his Contest of Champions, the wormholes could have purposely directed traffic to Sakarr by the Grandmaster himself. The notion of using wormholes as a way to trap other contenders on the planet does seem like something he'd do. The Grandmaster has mercenaries like Valkyrie hunting down new prospects after all, as you can see in the image below, which depicts the drop location for a large field of wormholes.

Additionally, Grandmaster has been confirmed to possess the powers of a Celestial, meaning it's feasible for him to manipulate the planet however he chooses—similar to how Ego terraformed his own planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. That said, the Grandmaster could be responsible for turning Sakarr into the wormhole waypoint it is today.

Is Red Skull even still on Sakarr?

Regardless of whether or not Sakarr is the central point for random wormholes in the MCU, there's still something to consider: what if Red Skull isn't on the planet anymore? There's no guarantee Red Skull is still in the the near vicinity of where he landed, or even on the planet. It's been over 60 years since he was sent into space, so he's had that span of time to conceive a new evil plan. And with the Grandmaster possessing a level of control over the planet that he can't contend with, Red Skull was most likely forced to leave the planet to rule somewhere he won't be hindered by a Celestial like the Grandmaster.

Is this the right time to bring Red Skull back?

Whatever the case may be, remnants or signs of the Red Skull are bound to be found on Sakarr at the very least. The prospect of Red Skull's plot thread being revived in Thor: Ragnarok seems like the perfect way to bring him back into the fold. He's been absent from the main narrative for too long, and Marvel is running out of opportunities to bring him back in.

After Kevin Feige let fans know that Phase 4 of the MCU is filled with uncertainty, there's little chance for an entirely story arc to reintroduce Red Skull. Three films have been scheduled already and more are being talked about, so the notion of another Captain America/Red Skull based film is highly unlikely at the moment. However, there's nothing stopping Marvel from bringing Red Skull back before Phase 4.

A resurgence of Red Skull in one of the upcoming Avengers movies is the only plausible place for him to show up again—unless he's been permanently scrapped, which is highly unlikely. Furthermore, Red Skull having his story arc touched upon in Thor: Ragnarok followed by his full return in Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers 4 seems like the logical direction for Marvel to take.

[ Source: Screenrant ]