 Adolf Hitler 's head of advanced weaponry and commander of the terrorist organization Hydra , whose own plan for world domination involves harnessing the power of the magical object known as the Tesseract . Weaving stated that he patterned Red Skull 's accent on those of Werner Herzog and Klaus Maria Brandauer . About the character , Weaving remarked , " I think the major difference between Skull and Cap , they 've both had the serum , and the serum seems to augment certain qualities that each of them have . Cap is much more in tune with other people I think . Schmidt is in tune with himself , and his own needs , and his own ego , so I suppose it augments that . From that point of view , they 're quite opposite . " 
