Possible New Avengers Villain Revealed?

Today’s trend appears to be learning crucial bits of spoilery information from toys tied in to major blockbusters. After Amazing Spider-Man toys tipped us off to a possible photo of Rhys Ifans’ Lizard character, we’re now hearing that a villain from Marvel movies past might have a significant part in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, due out in theaters in May.

WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!

That would be Captain America’s nemesis, Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving in Joe Johnston’s origin story from last summer. DigitalSpy is reporting from a HeroClix preview that Skull will appear alongside Loki (Tom Hiddleston) as the villains in Whedon’s film. We’ve already seen Loki in the early film trailers (reposted below), but had now idea that Skull could resurface.

It makes sense. Captain America and Thor went out of their way to establish both Red Skull and Loki as vital enemies. As of right now, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) lack recognizable foes that could be brought into the Avengers fold. So if Whedon wants to build something truly massive in scope, he’d be wise to bring in more than one opponent for this might Marvel team. I’ve long believed that Whedon needs a significant villain to justify the pairing of all of these superpowers. Maybe his solution is to have two villains?

Unlike the Spider-Man story, there’s no real toy showing Red Skull in an Avengers pose, so this could be nothing more than a rumor. We’ll likely know more as we get closer to the Avengers’ release date, which is May 4.