10 Awesome Fan Theories About The Future Of The MCU
1. Thanos Is Actually Red Skull
The MCU is no stranger to offering up villains that are radically different from their comic-book counterparts - just look at The Mandarin, or more recently, Civil War's Zemo, who was nothing like the sword-wielding Hydra Nazi portrayed in the source material.
With this firmly in mind, one other drastic change that's been theorized is the transformation of Hugo Weaving's Red Skull... into Thanos.
It's long been speculated that Red Skull is still alive, and that the Tesseract did not kill him at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, but instead transported him into deep space.
And if he is indeed lurking deep in the cosmos, could he have taken on a different form? The Infinity Stones have been shown to grant great power to those exposed to them in the past (Scarlet Witch, Vision, Quicksilver), so it wouldn't be a complete jump to assume they could alter Red Skull somehow.
Also, the light that the Tesseract gives off as Red Skull holds it in his hand looks remarkably close to the purpley-blue colour of Thanos' skin, which could be hinting at the red-faced baddie's complete physical redesign.
A bait-and-switch that's been in the making since 2011 would certainly be a shocking revelation, and would also make Thanos more than just an angry alien out for blood.
Red Skull has a firm motivation for wanting to defeat Captain America (and by extension, the Avengers) and what's more, he's already been shown to have a penchant for collecting Infinity Stones - remember when he desperately sought out the Tesseract in that small town back in 1942?
Which of these fan theories is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below, and if you have any of your own, we're all ears!