Movies
Corey Stoll defends Ant-Man 3’s MODOK amid backlash
MODOK made his MCU debut in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, but was met with some harsh criticism from fans.
Corey Stoll makes a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as M.O.D.O.K. in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’. But some fans are criticizing M.O.D.O.K. as being too goofy for the film.
In the comics, M.O.D.O.K. has an overly large head, tiny arms and legs, and moves around in a hoverchair. Overall, the look is incredibly comical and, arguably, did not translate well to the big screen.
In ‘Ant-Man 3′, M.O.D.O.K. is a CGI creation consisting of Stoll’s head being blown up in scale and placed on a mechanized suit.
Stoll told Variety: “Everybody’s trying to make this jump from a two-dimensional, static image on page to live action, and some things have to change.
“Jeff Loveness, who wrote the script, and [director] Peyton [Reed] and Paul [Rudd] made a very strong choice to retcon – is that the word? – this new reason for M.O.D.O.K. to be.
“I think it really works. It certainly works in the context of Darren’s arc.”
“The thing I always loved as a comic book fan was that there would be these radically different versions of the same characters. I was a big Batman fan growing up.
“Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ was the completely different character from ‘Year One’ or whatever. You don’t have to like everyone equally.
“There is no definitive any of these characters.”
Over-the-top yet underused
Best known for his role as Peter Russo in ‘House of Cards’, Stoll made his MCU debut as Darren Cross – or Yellowjacket – in 2015′s ‘Ant-Man’.
His return came as a surprise, but despite the fact that M.O.D.O.K is a formidable supervillain in the comics, he was severely underused in ‘Ant-Man 3′.
The character acted as a silly henchman to the far more frightening Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). He then dies by the end of the movie, having made little to no impact on the film or the other characters.
However, Stoll expressed his interest in returning to the role.
“I am game to play,” he told Variety. “If there is a great way to bring him back and he can continue to grow and bring smiles to people’s faces, I’d love to do it again.”