MODOK’s Melissa Fumero on Joining the Marvel World, Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Final Season, and More

In a matter of days, Marvel’s MODOK will release all 10 of its first season episodes on Hulu, introducing the masses to one of the most bizarre villains in the entire Marvel library. The show stars Patton Oswalt as the eponymous antagonist and Melissa Fumero as his daughter, who also happens to be named Melissa. A character original to the series, Melissa was just recently introduced into Marvel Comics’ Earth-616 continuity thanks to Oswalt and Jordan Blum’s MODOK: Head Games mini-series.

We recently caught up with Fumero to chat all things MODOK and her experience working on her very first Marvel project. “I just thought that take was super fun and fresh to do a show from the point of view of a supervillain, to dive into what his family life could potentially be in this world of villains and super-villains,” she tells of her initial response to the series. “Then knowing that it was gonna be Patton Oswalt and that he would be heavily involved in the writing of it and creation of it. I was like done. Sign me up. Where do I show up? I know this is going to be hilarious. And it was.”

Keep scrolling to see our full chat with Melissa Fumero!

Audition

ComicBook.com: So let’s start at the very beginning, yeah? You get a call that they want you to voice a Marvel character. What’s your initial reaction — just not even on the MODOK level quite yet, but joining this huge Marvel world?

Melissa Fumero: I mean, I wish it was like that cool. It was more like “Here’s an audition to put yourself on tape for a voice thing that we can’t tell you anything about. Go!” And then later I like found out that it was Marvel and that it was Patton [Oswalt] and that it was MODOK. My first reaction was like, “Wait, I think I know that villain,” and I sort of like had the image of him, but definitely had to look him up.

I just thought that take was super fun and fresh to do a show from the point of view of a supervillain, to dive into what his family life could potentially be in this world of villains and supervillains. Then knowing that it was gonna be Patton Oswalt and that he would be heavily involved in the writing of it and creation of it. I was like done. Sign me up. Where do I show up? I know this is going to be hilarious. And it was.

Original Characters

You play Melissa, a character original to the show. Characters like Iron Man end up showing up in the series that have years and years of comic source material to pull from, which certainly isn’t the case with your character. Is that something you’ve found kind of more freed you so you could develop your own thing or was it a little bit challenging cause you didn’t have all these storylines to at least reference or pull from?

Yeah, I guess a little bit of both. I definitely didn’t have to worry about anyone else’s version of her or, you know comparisons. I felt that the world that Patton and Jordan [Blum] built was so rich and I really had a sense of who she was and just like such a fun character to like dive into and play with.

I think it was more freeing than not to, you know, kind of build her from scratch and looking forward to — if we hopefully knock on wood get to do more MODOK — you know, where else we can go with her, so I’m really excited about that. Kind of a blank slate, which doesn’t happen very often in the comic book world.

Not for the Kids

Absolutely. I think MODOK himself gets his eyes stabbed out in like the first teaser trailer or something like that, so it’s not necessarily kid-appropriate.

No.

Do your kids know you’re a Marvel superhero, a character?

They do. My son does know that I’m on a show about MODOK. I’ve explained to him that it’s not really for kids and it’s for adults and that it’s not gonna be very appropriate for him. I probably will show him like a little piece of it. You know, something that doesn’t have like some of the really crass, more vulgar parts that we do.

But Jordan gave him a little MODOK doll and my son is a huge Avengers fan, so I love it now when he is playing with his Avenger dolls, it’s like MODOK is there as their villain and so he sets up these whole like battle scenes and it’s really cute.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

I do have to ask since you’re on the line, and it is probably one of the best comedies of our generation. How’s work on Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 8 going?

It’s going. We just wrapped on episode five, so we’re like midway through and we’ve had a lot of kind of misty moments happening on set. I will say, as we all start to think about and talk about the end, it feels really weird to be doing something where like, you know the last day is going to be so sad and you’re probably going to cry a lot. Like you’re like a month away from crying all the time. It’s like a really strange feeling, so we have a lot of moments where it’s like, it’s too soon.

We’re not, we’re not there yet. We’re not there yet and we’re just trying to like have fun, like we’re shooting any season of Brooklyn. It’s bittersweet, but I’m really proud of the show. I’m really proud of this season. I think it’s going tobe a really satisfying end, I hope for the viewers. I’m just trying to think of it as like the victory lap, you know, celebrating the show, and celebrating the people I work with. Not trying not to take anything for granted and stay really present.

*****

All 10 episodes of MODOK hit Hulu on May 21st. If you haven’t signed up for Hulu yet you can try it out here.

What other Marvel characters would you like to see get an animated series? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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Cover photo by Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images