Four separateMarvelprojects tried to adapt a famous comic book villain, and all of them have failed to do him justice so far. Many live-action Marvel villains have become just as popular as the heroes, or even more. Antagonist portrayals such as Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, and Josh Brolin’s Thanos have been on par with hero portrayals like Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. Recent MCU movies have presented many impressive villain performances, includingElizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, and Tenoch Huerta as Namor.
These villains have benefited from good writing and the inherent appeal of their comic book counterparts. For instance, Green Goblin and Thanos starred in popular comic storylines and other adaptations before they made their live-action debut, and their respective movies have understood how to use them within the plot.Other villains are inherently more difficult to adapt, both due to their smaller impact on the source material and their unconventional nature.Of these, a few antagonists successfully make it to the big or the small screen, while others struggle to even make their live-action debut.
Four Marvel Projects’ Plans To Adapt MODOK Fell Through
MODOK Only Made It To Live-Action After Four Failed Attempts
Plans for MODOK’s live-action debut started as early as 1997. Before the MCU was even devised,writer Jeff Vintar envisioned anIron Manmoviewhere Tony Stark fought MODOK, who would have been the leader of AIM and would have had a “Cobra Commander lisp.” Vintar’s script was scrapped, and Iron Monger became Iron Man’s first movie antagonist eleven years later in the MCU’s first movie. A few years later, MCU writerChristopher Markus wanter Peter Dinklage to play MODOKinCaptain America:The Winter Soldier, but his idea was shot down, possibly due to MODOK’s absurd appearance.
MODOK has found more luck in other formats. He got his own 3D-animated show starring Patton Oswalt onHuluin 2021, and he was the main antagonist of theMarvel’s Avengersvideo game in 2020.
Outside the MCU, Freeform was developing aNew WarriorsTV show parallel toCloak & Dagger. According to showrunner Kevin Biegel,New Warriors' main villain would have been MODOK, played by Keith David. However,New Warriorswas canceled before Biegel’s plans could move forward. Similarly,Zach McGowan’s Anton Ivanov a.k.a. Superiorwas on track to becoming a sentient head"only designed for killing"inspired by MODOK in ABC’sAgents of SHIELD, but Marvel blocked the writers from using the character in the show.
Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’s MODOK Didn’t Do The Villain Justice
Quantumania’s MODOK Was Neither The Original Villain Nor A Well-Received Reinvention Of The Character
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniarevealed that Scott Lang and Hank Pym’s enemy Darren Cross, who took up the Yellowjacket identity in 2015’sAnt-Man, shrunk to subatomic level and landed in the Quantum Realm, where Kang the Conqueror provided him with robotic armor and weapons, transforming him into MODOK.While visually similar, Corey Stoll’s MODOK is a far cry from his comic book counterpart — the AIM technician George Tarleton, who gains a taste for killing when his intellect is enhanced by AIM’s experiments.Introduced in 1967, Tarleton has a long history being a major enemy to the Avengers and a wide variety of Marvel heroes.
Besides replacing MODOK with an original MCU character,Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniawasted the villain. Corey Stoll’s MODOK served as the movie’s primary comic relief character, and he spent most of his stay in the Quantum Realm being Kang the Conqueror’s helpless servant. MODOK’s betrayal and heroic turn inAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s final battlecame out of left field, and he apparently died immediately afterward. In short, the MCU’s MODOK adaptation came off as an afterthought in another villain’s debut movie.
The MCU Can Still Make MODOK A Real Menace
Nothing Prevents Marvel Studios From Reintroducing MODOK Soon
While MODOK sacrificed himself to defeat Kang the Conqueror inAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, his death wasn’t really confirmed.WhenAvengers: Doomsdaystarts another Multiverse War in the MCU, MODOK could find a way out of the Quantum Realm and gain an interest in taking over the world or in fulfilling his new purpose as a killing machine back on Earth. Otherwise,a post-Secret WarsMCU rebootcould introduce a modified version of MODOK, this time with a more accurate background separate from Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror and Corey Stoll’s Yellowjacket. Either way, MODOK is too big of aMarvelvillain to remain a one-off minor antagonist.
