MODOK stands for Mechanical Organism Designed Only For Killing and if Paul Rudd had his way, he would’ve joined the likes of Sonny Burch, Yellowjacket, Goliath, and Ghost, as an Ant-Man antagonist. The supervillain was a genius AIM scientist named George Tarleton, before undergoing mutagenic experiments and becoming a giant head in a floating chair with the brain of a supercomputer.Think George Lopez’ character in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. While he’s not nearly as marketable as Loki, he is an iconic villain within the Marvel Universe, well deserving of a MCU appearance.
Ant-Man star Paul Rudd allegedly wanted to give the villain his due, because according to GWW.com, he included MODOK in his now rejected script proposal for the third installment in the Ant-Man & The Wasp franchise. The exact details of his role in that script are unclear, although there is some speculation that MODOK was the mysterious benefactor who hired Sonny Burch to steal Hank Pym’s technology in the second film.
Whether or not MODOK will appear in new writer Jeff Loveness’ script remains to be seen, although it’s certainly more likely now in light of this information. MODOK’s deeply cartoonish design and over the top nature would fit better in the Ant-Man franchise than anywhere else in the MCU, although he is not a character often associated with Scott Lang or Hank Pym.
MODOK’s History in the MCU
MODOK has been teased in the MCU before on the ABC series Marvel’s Agents Of Shield. Season four included a character named Anton Ivanov, aka The Superior, and there was some speculation that Ivanov was a radically redesigned version of MODOK. He became a hybrid Life Model Decoy, part-man and part-machine, just like MODOK. At one point he even claimed that his “body is only designed for killing,” driving the similarities home even further. Ultimately, the character parallelism amounted to nothing more than an easter egg.
Whether or not MODOK will appear in the MCU someday remains a mystery for now, but should he appear, the Ant-Man franchise would likely be the best fit. Considering the repeated teases and the existence of AIM in the MCU, his arrival is more than likely. Jeff Loveness may decide to take the story in an entirely new direction, or he may decide to work with Paul Rudd. Which wouldn’t be a bad idea considering he worked on the scripts for both previous Ant-Man films. Only time will tell what the future holds for Ant-Man and the Mechanical Organism Designed Only For Killing.
RELATED: ANT-MAN 3 FINDS ITS NEW WRITER IN RICK AND MORTY’S JEFF LOVENESS
The GWW report also claims that the Fantastic Four were a part of Rudd’s script, although Marvel has allegedly decided to work the Young Avengers team into the story instead of Marvel’s First Family. At this time in the film’s development, there are still many moving pieces, so it’s hypothetically possible that one of these teams could appear in Ant-Man 3, but it’s just as likely that they won’t. Regardless, a Fantastic Four movie is confirmed to be in development at Marvel Studios, and the arrival of the Young Avengers in the MCU is practically inevitable, although it has yet to be officially confirmed.
Would you like to see Ant-Man go head to head with MODOK? Would you prefer to see the Fantastic Four or The Young Avengers in Ant-Man 3? Let us know in the comments below or on our social media!
