Marvel Star Ross Marquand Based Avengers Role on an Iconic Star Wars Character

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Ross Marquand unveiled the Star Wars character who served as inspiration for Red Skull in the Avengers. Seven years after Hugo Weaving donned prosthetics to portray Captain America’s nemesis in The First Avenger (2011), which concluded with a cosmic cube transporting the villain through space, Red Skull resurfaced as the spectral Stonekeeper in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. Later on, Marquand, well-known for his acting skills in The Walking Dead, took over the role of Stonekeeper for the Soul Stone on Vormir after Weaving declined to reprise it.

During a recent conversation at Sci-Fi Valley Con, Marquand shared that we’d just wrapped up season 7 of “The Walking Dead” when an email arrived from my manager, asking if I could do an impression of Hugo Weaving, known for his role in “The Matrix”. Surprisingly, I hadn’t considered impersonating him before, as it wasn’t something I was accustomed to. So, I asked, “Which Hugo are we talking about?

A hint to perform in Weaving’s German accent made Marquand suspect that the character was Red Skull. “They said something like, ‘We can’t exactly tell you what it is’,” he recalled. “I replied, ‘That sounds like Red Skull’. They showed me a clip from Captain America: The First Avenger, and indeed, it was a scene from that movie.

Marquand initially sent a trial recording, which eventually led him to be summoned to Atlanta for a vocal compatibility test with Weaving, unbeknownst to him until he arrived on the set – the project being none other than Marvel’s Infinity War.

According to Marquand, he initially believed it was just a voiceover role, but they informed him that there was more to it. He ended up wearing a motion-capture suit, not knowing what was happening. When he arrived at the studio, he was surprised to find over a hundred people waiting for him. Upon arrival, directors Anthony and Joe Russo fitted him with a motion capture suit similar to the ones worn by Josh Brolin’s Thanos and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk.

It wasn’t until they began adding the dots that they asked, “Don’t you realize you’re working on something without being informed?” Marquand responded. At that moment, I realized I had been kept in the dark about everything. [They then revealed], “This is the latest Avengers film.

During his initial conversation with the Russo brothers, they shared details about the fate of the Red Skull, which had transpired over the past 70 years since his vanishing. According to Marquand’s recollection, they stated, “You’ll be portraying a future Red Skull who is significantly more damaged; he’s almost like a spectral figure now.” They further added, “We want you to emulate Hugo Weaving’s performance but definitely add your own unique touch.” Marquand was tasked with playing the role of a Red Skull who had been exiled to a distant planet, where he guides others towards a treasure that he himself cannot obtain.

Marquand mentioned that he was advised to incorporate a hint of Yoda’s character into his voice. At first, he followed the suggestion too closely by imitating the voice of Yoda, voiced by Frank Oz. However, he later modified his Red Skull voice to make it sound like Weaving’s, with a sense of an ancient alien creature that possessed vast knowledge and had lived for centuries.

Marquand continued to lend his voice to various villains across the Marvel multiverse, taking on the roles of Ultron, who possessed the Infinity Stones in Marvel Animation’s “What If…?”, and the ancient mutant known as Apocalypse in “X-Men ’97”.

Regarding the possibility of reprising Red Skull in either “Avengers: Doomsday” or “Avengers: Secret Wars”, Marquand expressed his eagerness, particularly for Doctor Doom in “Doomsday”. He said, “I’m looking forward to seeing where they take it, especially with Doctor Doom for ‘Doomsday’. That should be quite enjoyable. We’ll see, I’m excited to find out how it turns out.

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2025-08-04 21:14