Star Wars Has Its Own Disturbing Version Of Marvel's Red Skull
Star Wars: The High Republic has introduced Lucasfilm's own twisted version of Marvel's Red Skull. The Star Wars franchise has always drawn inspiration from popular culture. After all, when George Lucas launched Star Wars, he was inspired by everything from Westerns to Flash Gordon. Given this history of inspiration, it's no surprise the relationship between Star Wars and the prosperous Marvel Cinematic Universe is drawing a little closer.
Most of the references to date have been on Marvel's part. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige grew up loving Star Wars films, and he's introduced a number of homages to them - e.g., as noted by his habit of having someone losing a limb in many of his films. Spider-Man and his friend Ned built a LEGO Death Star together, and in Captain America: Civil War one of the wall-crawler's battle strategies was inspired by "that really old movie, Empire Strikes Back." Marvel's What If...? went one further, suggesting Star Warsis part of the MCU's multiverse when the Watcher and Ultron briefly battled on Mustafar and Felucia.
Related: Star Wars Makes A New Hope Deleted Scene Canon After 44 Years
Daniel Jose Older's Midnight Horizon features an amusing nod in the other direction, though. The Star Wars novel is set 200 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, and it introduces an obvious riff on Marvel's Red Skull — a group of child assassins called the Scarlet Skulls, who dressed in black outfits with their faces painted a vivid blood-red. The Scarlet Skulls are depicted as a ruthless group who were thankfully shut down by the Republic, and in Midnight Horizon a couple of young Jedi Padawans disguise themselves as new initiates so they can infiltrate an underworld
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