How Did Captain America Return the Soul Stone to Red Skull? And What Happened to Natasha?
I’ve been looking back at Avengers: Endgame again, especially after writing about James Rogers and the different timelines created during the Time Heist, and there’s one part of the story that still has me scratching my head. How on earth did Steve Rogers return the Soul Stone to Vormir, knowing that Red Skull could be waiting for him?
Think about it. The last time Steve saw Johann Schmidt in Captain America: The First Avenger, they were fighting during the Second World War and Red Skull disappeared after touching the Tesseract. Steve had no idea where he’d gone, or even if he was still alive. Fast forward to Endgame and he’s potentially travelling to another planet to return an Infinity Stone to the very man who tried to take over the world. I’d have loved to see that conversation, especially considering how much both characters had changed since their last meeting.
But the thing that really interests me isn’t just Red Skull. It’s what happens when you return something that somebody had to sacrifice their life to obtain. If Steve returned the Soul Stone, shouldn’t there have been something in exchange? And if Natasha wasn’t coming back, what exactly did returning the stone achieve?
Steve Rogers and Red Skull, An Awkward Reunion
When we first met Red Skull on Vormir in Avengers: Infinity War, he was nothing like the HYDRA leader we’d seen in The First Avenger. He’d become a strange, ghost-like guardian of the Soul Stone, explaining to Thanos that obtaining it required sacrificing someone he loved. By the time Clint and Natasha arrived in Endgame, he was still there, delivering the same horrible news to anyone who wanted the stone.
The Russo brothers have spoken about what might have happened if Steve encountered Red Skull again, and Joe Russo suggested they probably wouldn’t have fought. Red Skull was no longer the same villain Steve remembered, and Steve wasn’t travelling there to start another battle. He simply needed to return the stone. Which makes sense, although I can’t imagine Steve arriving on Vormir and not having a few questions for the man who caused so much suffering during the war.
Would Red Skull have recognised him? Did he still remember their fight, or had spending decades guarding the Soul Stone changed him completely? And would Steve have even recognised the floating figure standing in front of him? I know it’s not exactly the most important unanswered question in the MCU, but it’s one of those scenes I wish Marvel had included, even if it was just a few minutes.
There’s also a little uncertainty about whether Red Skull would still have been there. The filmmakers have previously suggested that claiming the Soul Stone might release him from his duties, so we can’t say for certain that Steve actually met him. But for the sake of this theory, let’s imagine he did, because I think the conversation could have been rather interesting.
If The Soul Stone Was Returned, Why Didn’t Natasha Come Back?
Natasha’s death is still one of the hardest moments in Endgame for me. Watching her and Clint fighting over which one of them was going to sacrifice themselves was heartbreaking, especially after everything they’d been through together. They weren’t fighting to survive, they were fighting to save each other, and Natasha ultimately made the decision that allowed Clint to return with the stone.
We know that Bruce tried to bring Natasha back when he used the Infinity Stones, but he couldn’t. The Russo brothers have also explained that returning the Soul Stone wouldn’t reverse the sacrifice. Once somebody gives their life to obtain it, that exchange is permanent. So as much as we’d love Steve to arrive on Vormir, hand the stone back and walk away with Natasha, that’s not how the rules appear to work.
But I still wonder whether Steve tried. Knowing his relationship with Natasha, I find it difficult to believe he wouldn’t at least ask whether there was a way to bring her home. They’d spent years fighting alongside each other, going on the run together and trusting each other when almost everyone else had turned against them. I’ve always thought there was an unconditional love between Steve and Nat, even if Marvel never developed it into a romantic relationship. Imagine him standing on Vormir with the very stone that cost her life, knowing that returning it wasn’t going to change anything for her.
And this is where I start wondering whether the Soul Stone could have offered Steve something else. Not Natasha’s life, because we’ve already established that wasn’t possible, but perhaps some sort of understanding about what he’d lost or what he could still have. There’s nothing in the films confirming that happened, but it does make me think about why Steve eventually chose to stay in the past with Peggy.
Did Returning the Soul Stone Actually Fix the Timeline?
We’ve already looked at the different timelines created during the Time Heist, and Vormir is particularly interesting because it connects directly to the events of 2014. That was the year Thanos discovered the Avengers’ plan, travelled into the future with his army and was eventually destroyed by Tony Stark. So even if Steve returned the Soul Stone to the exact moment it was taken, the events surrounding that year had already changed dramatically.
Bruce Banner explained that returning the Infinity Stones would prevent the alternate realities from being left without them, which was the Ancient One’s main concern. But that doesn’t mean every other change the Avengers made would suddenly disappear. The 2014 version of Thanos was gone, Gamora had travelled into the future and the events that originally led to Infinity War could no longer happen in exactly the same way in that branch.
And what about Vormir itself? If Steve returned the Soul Stone, would somebody else eventually arrive looking for it? Would they have to make the same sacrifice Natasha made, or had the stone already been claimed and returned in a way that changed its purpose? We don’t really know how that process works, because Marvel never showed us anybody returning the Soul Stone before.
That’s what makes this different from the other stones. You can put the Time Stone back with the Ancient One or return the Reality Stone to its original location, although I’d love to know how Steve managed that one too. But the Soul Stone was obtained through somebody dying. Returning the object doesn’t undo the events that led to its removal, and it certainly doesn’t give Natasha her life back.
So while Steve may have completed his mission, I don’t think we can assume that everything on Vormir simply returned to normal.
Could This Connect to James Rogers and Avengers: Doomsday?
Now this is where my previous James Rogers theory comes back into the picture. We’ve been hearing speculation about Steve’s son appearing in Avengers: Doomsday, and although there’s no confirmation that the child we’ve seen is James, I still find the possibility interesting. In Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, James is the son of Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff, which is obviously very different from the relationship we’ve seen in the main MCU.
But with the multiverse now playing such a big part in Marvel’s storytelling, there’s nothing stopping another version of Natasha from existing somewhere. We’ve already seen something similar with Gamora, whose original version died in Infinity War while another travelled forward from 2014. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 made it clear that she wasn’t simply the same person brought back to life, and I actually appreciated that because it meant her original sacrifice still mattered.
What if there’s a timeline where Natasha survived, Steve never returned to Peggy and the two of them had James? That wouldn’t undo the Natasha we lost in Endgame, but it would give Marvel an interesting way to explore a different version of her life. And if Steve somehow discovered that another Natasha had a family, I can imagine that being quite an emotional moment for him.
Then there’s Doctor Doom and all the speculation about the consequences of the Avengers interfering with time. What if Doom’s problem isn’t simply that they travelled into the past, but that their actions allowed people and families to exist who weren’t supposed to? Steve choosing to live with Peggy, Loki escaping with the Tesseract and Thanos disappearing from 2014 could all have consequences that nobody considered at the time.
I’m not suggesting Red Skull secretly gave Steve a warning about Doom or that the Soul Stone somehow created James Rogers. That would be a rather enormous leap, even for one of my Marvel theories. But I do wonder whether Steve’s journey to return the stones could become important again, particularly if Doomsday starts exploring the lives that were changed by the events of Endgame.
There’s Still So Much We Don’t Know About Steve’s Final Journey
When you think about it, Marvel managed to skip over one of the most interesting journeys in the MCU. Steve travelled through different periods of history, returned six Infinity Stones and Mjolnir, potentially encountered Red Skull again and eventually decided to spend the rest of his life with Peggy Carter. And we saw almost none of it. He disappeared from the platform and the next thing we knew, he was sitting on a bench as an old man.
I loved that ending, don’t get me wrong. After everything Steve had sacrificed, it was nice seeing him finally get the life he’d always wanted. But I still have so many questions about what happened between those two moments, especially on Vormir. Did Steve ask about Natasha? Did Red Skull explain anything about the Soul Stone? And did something during that journey help Steve decide that it was finally time to stop fighting and enjoy his own life?
We might never get those answers, and perhaps Marvel never intended us to. But with Steve Rogers returning to the conversation around Avengers: Doomsday, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Russo brothers revisit at least some of the decisions made during Endgame.
For me, Natasha’s sacrifice should remain permanent in the original MCU timeline. It was a huge part of her story and undoing it would take away some of the emotion that made Endgame so memorable. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other versions of Natasha, other timelines or other consequences waiting to be explored.
We’ve now looked at James Rogers, the Time Heist branches and Steve returning the Soul Stone, and somehow everything keeps coming back to Captain America and the choices he made. Maybe that’s exactly what the Russo brothers want us thinking about, or perhaps I’ve just spent far too much time trying to work out how somebody returns a magical orange stone to a floating former HYDRA leader.
Either way, I’d still love to see that conversation. Especially if Steve asked for Natasha back and Red Skull had to explain that the universe doesn’t offer refunds.
What do you think, Fandom? Should returning the Soul Stone have given Steve something in exchange, or was Natasha’s sacrifice always going to be permanent?
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