Having worked as a writer on Rick and Morty for two seasons, Jeff Loveness is no stranger to alien landscapes, strange creatures and pulling from off-the-wall references. In that regard, Loveness must have felt right at home while scribing Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, which takes the heroes to the Quantum Realm and introduces them to an array of peculiar creatures. Though the Ant-Family finds themselves in another dimension, it’s a creature with ties to their own that has caught the eye of audiences in the latest trailer and who will pose problems for the protagonists for MODOK’s time has come.
As seen in the new trailer, MODOK is played by Corey Stoll, whose Darren Cross was gruesomely dispatched into the Quantum Realm in the final act of 2015’s Ant-Man. The character, who has a fairly comic-accurate design, plays a major role in Quantumania and according to Loveness, is also responsible for his “favorite moments” in the film.
MODOK is maybe my single favorite thing that I got in the movie. Obviously, we are very faithful to the comics with the design and the look, but then there is a little bit of extra we put into him. Maybe I’ll get fired off The Kang Dynasty when people see it, but some of my favorite moments come from MODOK and the dynamics there.
Jeff Loveness
While MODOK’s look is comic-inspired, Loveness had to come up with a brand new take on the character given his new origins. In doing so, he took inspiration from a late 80s off-beat, cult classic comedy, A Fish Called Wanda.
I’ll just say he was inspired by Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda and Frank Grimes in an old Simpsons episode – this really put-upon, selfish, entitled but then also deeply sad, insecure man who knows that he got a shit deal in life and is trying to make the best of it. His ego will crumble the second he’s challenged but then also like Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda, he’s pretty good at killing people.
Jeff Loveness
A Fish Called Wanda is a wacky heist film with a number of betrayals and double-crosses, many of which include Kline’s Otto, a role for which he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Like its successors, Quantumania appears to be a heist film, so should the script of Quantumania have taken a bit of inspiration from A Fish Called Wanda, fans will have their share of twists and turns to track, which is part of the fun of heist films.
Loveness explains that MODOK is “a real loose cannon character and I had a great amount of fun with him,” while adding that he played a key role in finding the tone for the threequel. “We cracked MODOK as a character“, said Loveness, “and the movie just became so fun.” Fans don’t have long to find out just how much fun Quantumania is as it is set to hit theaters on February 17th.
Source: SFX Magazine via Games Radar
