Honourable Mention – The Red Skull is Thanos
This is a highly unlikely prediction but due to the nature of the Red Skull’s last scene in Captain America: The First Avenger, there is some ambiguity to the fate of the character. In the final scene we see Red Skull hold the Tesseract with his bare hands before it starts to melt him. Until recently people assumed that Red Skull’s fate was clear, but after analysis of the scene, his fate is far more ambiguous. In the scene a portal opens up and before Red Skull gets obliterated we see a shot of space and the beam that presumably goes across the universe. The portal then stops, red Skull is no longer there and the Tesseract falls into the sea. What was the relevance of showing a portal into space? Maybe Red Skull got transported across the stars and across time? Is it possible that he was able to use his knowledge and power on a different world to become Thanos?
Of course the chances of this are slim to none, and the way the scene was shot may just be ambiguous for ambiguity’s sake. Maybe reading too much into the scene has led to think this crazy theory – and it is a crazy theory, however it was definitely worth mentioning. The Red Skull was reportedly in the first draft of The Avengers as a supporting villain to Loki. This was however cut out due to the fear of crowding the film with villains. This may mean that the Red Skull is still alive – even if he is not Thanos.
Originally published April 13, 2014. Updated April 15, 2018.
