Walking Dead actor talks about surprising Avengers Infinity War cameo
By Shawn Lealos
Everyone knew that a popular Walking Dead actor would be in Avengers: Infinity War, but it turns out a second actor from the hit zombie show showed up as well — in a very surprising role.
DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE BECAUSE THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE FOR AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.
Seriously, this is a major spoiler for Avengers: Infinity War, so don’t read on if you don’t want to be spoiled. If you have already seen the movie, there still might be a chance you didn’t notice an appearance by a beloved member of the Alexandria community.
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Of course, everyone knew that Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne in The Walking Dead, was showing back up in Avengers: Infinity War as Okoye – the head of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje. However, what most fans didn’t know was that Ross Marquand, who plays Aaron on The Walking Dead, had a surprise role.
Most fans wouldn’t have recognized him anyway.
Marquand appeared in the movie as none other than the surprisingly still alive Red Skull.
Of course, MCU fans knew that Red Skull appeared to die in Captain America: The First Avenger when he tempted fate by trying to control the Space Stone (the Tesseract). Somehow, he didn’t die but was transported to another part of the galaxy where he has been alive ever since.
Red Skull ended up on the planet Vormir guarding the Soul Stone and it is Red Skull who tells Thanos that he has to kill the person he loves the most to gain access to it — that person being Thanos’ adopted daughter Gamora.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, Hugo Weaving played Red Skull but he refused to reprise the role due to the fact that he hated spending hours in the makeup chair. With that said, Walking Dead actor Ross Marquand had no problem with it and took on the surprising role as the returning Red Skull.
He even did a great job of sounding like Hugo Weaving. And in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ross Marquand loved every minute of it.
"The biggest thing that Marvel wanted to do was come as close to the iconic role that Hugo Weaving portrayed seven years ago and pay homage to it while also giving it a new flavor… I just loved playing this part because I genuinely used to draw Red Skull, Omega Red and all these other villains as a kid, and it was just such a geeky pleasure to play this part. I just absolutely love it."
Next: How will Avengers: Infinity War affect Marvel Television?
In a hugely crazy bit of trivia, Marquand said he didn’t even reach out to tell Gurira that he was in it because of the non-disclosure agreement with Marvel. Marquand said he didn’t tell anyone he was in the movie until the day it came out. That was seven months of keeping the secret.