M.O.D.O.K. seemed like one of the most unlikely characters to jump from the pages of Marvel Comics to the shared cinematic universe being created by Marvel Studios. Everything about the character seemed for too over-the-top for a live-action version to be accepted…and then came Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Against all odds, M.O.D.O.K., played by Corey Stoll, will make his debut in the film as a member of Kang’s Quantum Realm crew. The inclusion of the character, who was greatly reimagined for the film, was no easy task but thanks to the commitment and imagination of the creatives working on Quantumania, M.O.D.O.K. is ready for his grotesque closeup.
“For me, it was a personal thrill,” said director Peyton Reed about the inclusion of the massively craniumed character. “I was a kid who spent a lot of my childhood alone in a room reading Marvel comics. And M.O.D.O.K. was always this insane character. And he’s grotesque. He’s a giant head that has been turned into a mechanized organism designed only for killing,” explained Reed. “That was intriguing. So, we started talking about, is there a place in the MCU in the Ant-Man movies, for a live-action version of M.O.D.O.K.? And what would that look like and how would we go about it?“
Reed’s line of questioning was addressed by Marvel Studios’ Parliament member and Quantumania executive producer Stephen Broussard. “I mean, it’s a very odd character, to say the least,” stated Broussard. “It’s kind of loomed large in our imagination of how and if we could pull that off. You know, it always felt like a challenge, like, going back years, here at Marvel. And we hit on an idea. And we think we had an idea that we were excited about,” he added of bringing the character to the MCU. “And I don’t wanna say too much here in this forum,” teased Broussard, “but I think the time was right to bring M.O.D.O.K. to the big screen, finally.“
M.O.D.O.K. was almost certainly not on many lists as a character who would make their way into the MCU, but as Broussard said, the time was right and tying Stoll’s Darren Cross’s grotesque exit in 2015’s Ant-Man to M.O.D.O.K.’s classically discomforting look was a brilliant way to tie things together and find an in for the villain. Judge for yourself if Reed and Broussard made the right choice wit the character when Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters on February 17th.
