Red Skull is Villain, The Invaders Will Appear, Joe Johnston Dishes All About The First Avenger: Captain America

By Kevin Coll • February 8, 2010 • 2 Comments

Many people expected we’d hear more about the upcoming Marvel studios adaptation of Captain America being that director, Joe Johnston was going to be out and about at press events promoting his latest film, The Wolfman.

Massive details have circulated around the internet through various articles on what to expect for the latest Marvel superhero adaptation. Some of those interviews included that Red Skull would be the main villain in the movie, The Invaders plan to appear and that Johnston is looking at 6 actors currently for the title roll (we reported this here).

Collider, The LA Times, Shock and AICN collectively learned a bunch of bits about the next Marvel comic adaptation. Click the links to read the full interviews on the respective sites.

When it comes to how we will see the character and the feel/tone of the movie the film will be shot in 2D High Definition, with a visual style that is “a bit different,” trying to interpret the visual style of the more recent comics “into a film in a way that I think hasn’t been tried before.” This means because its almost like a period piece its look is a lot different than most of the comic books we have seen before it.

The villain has been confirmed to be Red Skull. An enemy to Captain America, Red Skull’s known alias is , Johann Schmidt (sometimes spelled Shmidt). He was a former Nazi general officer and confidant of Adolf Hitler. He has been closely affiliated with HYDRA and is an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers, and the interests of the United States and the free world in general. He was physically augmented by having his mind placed into the body of a clone of Captain America, the pinnacle of human perfection. He has been seemingly killed in the past, only to return time and time again to plague the world with schemes of world domination and genocide.

Johnston then talked about the costume they’ve come up with including the reasoning behind it to explain why the scientifically enhanced super-soldier wears a bright red, white and blue costume in the World War II battlefields.

“After he’s made into this super-soldier, they decide they can’t send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He’s the only one and they can’t make more. So they say, ‘You’re going to be in this USO show’ and they give him a flag suit.” … “So he’s up on stage doing songs and dances with chorus girls and he can’t wait to get out and really fight. When he does go AWOL, he covers up the suit but then, after a few things happen, he realizes that this uniform allows him to lead. By then, he’s become a star in the public mind and a symbol. The guys get behind him because he embodies something special.” The USO outfit will look closer to the classic Jack Kirby-designed costume, but later he will be wearing “a sturdier, more muted version that he makes himself that is more like battle togs. The stripes across his mid-section, for instance, will be straps, not colored fabric.” Johnston says “He realizes the value of the uniform symbols but he modifies his suit and adds some armor, it will be closer to the Cpa costume in some of the comics in more recent years.”

CHUD has also confirmed with Johnston himself that The Invaders, a WWII superteam that Cap and sidekick Bucky Barnes are a part of, will be in the movie, too. “They’ll be in the entire second half,” said Johnston to the site. Speculation has loomed over the past year that The Invaders might make an appearance but now we know they’re officially involved.

For those who are unaware of what the Invaders are they are like the original Avengers team or at least a precursor to them. The Invaders team first appeared in flashback stories set during World War II, and comprised existing characters from Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel. Originally, Captain America (Steve Rogers), his sidekick Bucky (James Barnes), the original android Human Torch (“Jim Hammond”), the Torch’s sidekick Toro (Thomas Raymond), and Namor the Sub-Mariner were together as heroes opposing the forces of Nazism. When these superheroes saved the life of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from Master Man, the thankful Churchill suggested that they should become a team, known as the Invaders. Other members of the Invaders included Miss America, Whizzer, Blazing Skull and Silver Scorpion.

I do not know if the Invaders origin will go quite like that in the film. I will say this though – AWESOME! Back in August we got an update that Jonathan Mostow was still attached to the Sub-Mariner solo movie, could Captain America be setting that up? I think that would be sweet as hell! not to mention the Invaders teaming up can be a lot of fun for the film and really harness the true essence of giving Capt. America a proper origin film.

All thumbs up here for this movie and how it sounds so far.

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