Avengers: Infinity War can revive these 6 characters

Credit: Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures; from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

5. Red Skull

The Tesseract, the vessel for the Space Stone, apparently disintegrated the Red Skull at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger. Yet speculation has endured that Johann Schmidt is not dead; perhaps he was transported elsewhere or has been in disassembled stasis, similar to matter streams in Star Trek’s transporters.

That Red Skull isn’t truly dead is what would make his return plausible. He’s of no value to Thanos, nor would any known character in Infinity War want to resurrect him.

That means Red Skull would have to reemerge by chance. If the Infinity Gauntlet is somehow damaged, or our heroes fight Thanos for control of it, that could give Schmidt an opening to reconstitute himself.

Granted, that’s only so plausible. However, I’m still including Red Skull because he’s a classic villain played to his megalomaniacal fullest by Hugo Weaving. (Last I heard, Weaving is at least lukewarm to reprising the role.)

In the wake of Thanos’ destruction, and the presumed death of Steve Rogers and other heroes, he could reconstitute Hydra to exploit a fearful and vulnerable world. Screenwriters would also have a chance to evolve him beyond a mere “uber-Nazi” and make him more interesting. Nuanced, complex villains are one thing the MCU has sometimes lacked in.