It must be annoying when you’re trying to promote your latest movie and the only thing anyone cares about is what you’re doing next. That’s the situation Joe Johnston is currently facing, as he’s trying to get the word out about this week’s opening of The Wolfman, but everyone just keeps asking about Captain America.
However, he doesn’t seem afraid to talk about the upcoming superhero movie, confirming to several sites (via /Film) things that have already been hinted at, such as that he wants a relative unknown for the lead role and that they’re looking at actors in the range between their early 20s and early 30s. It’ll be shot in the UK and is an origin story mainly set in the Second World War, except for bookends that tie it in to the upcoming Avengers movie. At the moment it’s planned as a 2D release (although don’t be shocked if that changes).
However the big news comes via Shock Til You Drop, to whom Johnston confirmed that the villain of the movie will be Red Skull. Although there have been different incarnations of the villain, the most logical version of Red Skull for the film is the former Nazi general officer and confidant of Hitler, Johann Schmidt. In the comics the Fuhrer trained Schmidt personally and eventually gave him a grotesque red skull mask, with his job to be embodiment of Nazi intimidation. It was the propaganda effect of Red Skull that encouraged the US to create Captain America in the first place.
It sounds as if they’re trying to keep the film fairly close to its roots and not play with the mythology too much, and Red Skull should certainly make a good bad guy.