Marvel Studios concept artist Aleksi Briclot has offered a look at how different Corey Stoll’s MODOK might have looked in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
On Instagram, Briclot shared not one, but two unused MODOK designs. The initial design is drastically different from that seen in the final film, taking more direct inspiration from Stoll’s role as Yellowjacket in the first Ant man movie. “Always a challenge to maintain the connection to the material source (sic) from the comics and push it forward while embracing the whole concept of his roots in the film,” Briclot wrote. “At one point an idea came up about some quantum geysers, ageing, emaciation (sic) and transforming things. I jumped at the idea and thought of a warped reconfiguration… Part of the challenge was keeping the Darren Cross(‘) likeness. hidden to later be a revelation.”
The other unused design, meanwhile, is a bit closer to the final version, as well as a bit more cartoon accurate. It also depicts MODOK as being absolutely massive, with Briclot dubbing the piece “MODOKZILLA”. “The core and main idea of (Ant man) is a game about size and scale,” he wrote. “The essence of the character and concept. Shrinks, gets bigger (also has some trouble with the law and goes to jail, but that’s another story). (MODOK) also has something related to size in some messy way: a really HUGE face on top of a really small body. So the (Q)uantum (R)ealm would have been the proper reason to cause these warped proportions as well as offer a set to play with!”
In addition to his work for Marvel, Briclot is known as the co-founder of Dontnod Entertainment, the French video game studio behind titles such as Remember me, Life is strange, Life is strange 2 and Tell me why. He is also one of the lead artists for Wizards of the Coast’s massively popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering.
What would MODOK do if his memory got too full?
IN Quantumis the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of MODOK revealed to be none other than Darren Cross, with Stoll reprising the role from 2015’s Ant man. In that film, Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) defeated Cross, aka Yellowjacket, by making him go subatomic, thus sending him to the Quantum Realm. Quantum shows what happened after the fact, where Cross was recruited by the missing Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) and turned into a mechanized organism designed only to kill. MODOK is initially dead set on getting revenge on Scott, but later has a change of heart and dies fighting on the side of good.”
Originally introduced as an enemy of Captain America, MODOK was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and made his first full appearance in the 1967s Tales of excitement #94. Before he made his MCU debut in Quantum, MODOK starred in his own animated series on Hulu, with Patton Oswalt voicing the character. MODOK has also previously appeared as MCU adjunct in the official Iron Man 3 video games that are considered non-canon.
Speaking of MCU-adjacent projects, MODOK almost made his live-action debut well before Quantum hit theaters last month. There were once plans for the villain to appear in the canceled TV series Marvel’s New Warriorswith Keith David stepping into the role. New warriors was scheduled to premiere on Freeform (which also aired Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger) in 2018. However, Freeform ultimately dropped the series, which was subsequently unable to find a new home. One more pilot New warriors was shot but has never been released to the public.
Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in the cinema now.
Source: Instagram (1, 2)