Official: Hugo Weaving is Captain America's Red Skull!

Though it was rumoured for a long time, Marvel has now confirmed that Hugo Weaving will be playing Red Skull, the villain in the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger movie.

Marvel Studios announced today that Hugo Weaving has been cast to star as Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull in the studio's highly anticipated movie "Captain America: The First Avenger" opposite Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell. In the early comics, Johann Schmidt was drafted into loyal service of The Third Reich and renamed "The Red Skull." The character will be updated for the feature adaptation. Joe Johnston will direct the film penned by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely.
[Marvel]

Hugo Weaving is no stranger to playing bad guys (he was extraordinary as agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy, and was the voice of the villainous Megatron in the Transformers movies). But he's also played his share of heroes (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, V For Vendetta). His addition to the cast certainly makes Captain America even more exciting!

Captain America is set to be released 22 July 2011