The Many Unrealized Live-Action Versions of M.O.D.O.K.

Though M.O.D.O.K., the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, has been around in various Marvel Comics publications since September 1967, this nefarious foe would only make his live-action debut in 2023 through the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Here, M.O.D.O.K was radically overhauled to be a new version of Ant-Man baddie Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) and a minion of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). This iteration of M.O.D.O.K. did not go over well with audiences, particularly with his uncanny valley character design that failed to translate this villain properly into live-action.

Considering how poorly the inaugural live-action version of M.O.D.O.K. went, one has to wonder about other takes on M.O.D.O.K. that could’ve gone so much better. Over the years, though, an assortment of live-action Marvel movies and TV shows have all tried their hand at realizing M.O.D.O.K. Clearly, none of them came to fruition, but a few years removed from Quantumania, they provide an interesting glimpse into alternate, potentially superior versions of a beloved Marvel Comics baddie.

The Unrealized Winter Soldier and New Warriors Takes on M.O.D.O.K.

Just a month after Captain America: The First Avenger, screenwriter Christopher Markus dropped a bombshell revelation on who he wanted to terrorize Steve Rogers in the sequel. Markus was apparently a massive fan of M.O.D.O.K. and desperately wanted to see this character be the next solo Captain America movie villain, complete with someone like Peter Dinklage playing the character. At the time, Markus noted that he was basically alone on the creative team in wanting to see M.O.D.O.K. in this project that would become Captain America: The Winter Solider, but he promised to not give up on this adversary.

It’s hard to imagine how M.O.D.O.K. would’ve fit even remotely well into the relatively grounded aesthetic of The Winter Soldier. However, M.O.D.O.K. was a long-time opponent of Captain America in the comics, so it’s easy to see why Markus would’ve been excited to incorporate this character into one of Cap’s big-screen outings. Another, subsequent plan to bring M.O.D.O.K. to live-action would be confined to the small screen and not involve Captain America at all.

Instead, the plan would’ve involved a TV show entitled New Warriors that starred, among other superheroes, Doreen Green/Squirrel Girl. Keith David was cast in the show’s pilot episode as an original character named Ernest Vigman, with the New Warriors creative team revealing years later that the plan was to have Vigman turn into M.O.D.O.K. over the show’s run. The more heightened superheroes on this show meant that slipping M.O.D.O.K. into the program could’ve been a piece of cake. However, New Warriors never got picked up to series. Audiences never even got a chance to meet Ernest Vigman, let alone get invested in plans to turn him into a famous Marvel Comics baddie.

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The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. M.O.D.O.K. Viewers Almost Got to See

The pre-Quantumania M.O.D.O.K. audiences got closest to seeing was in the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. There were once plans to transform fourth-season baddie Anton Ivanov (Zach McGowan) into M.O.D.O.K. over a multi-season plan. Though Marvel initially gave the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. team free reign to deploy M.O.D.O.K., that ability was later revoked and plans for Anton Ivanov had to be changed drastically. His eventual status as a head in a jar that resembles an old scuba helmet, though, does bear more than a passing resemblance to M.O.D.O.K.

All these abandoned plans and M.O.D.O.K.’s final Quantumania form share one interesting detail: none of them feature the character’s comic book pre-villainy identity. In most comics and other media adaptations of M.O.D.O.K., it’s a given that A.I.M. employee George Tarleton is the ordinary man who eventually becomes the freakish M.O.D.O.K. Perhaps as a way to make this super-stylized character more “palatable” to viewers, most plans for live-action M.O.D.O.K. involved a pre-existing character that wasn’t Tarleton transforming into this mechanical villain.

That approach endured into Darren Cross becoming M.O.D.O.K., though bringing Corey Stoll back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe certainly didn’t save the Quantumania version of the character from critical drubbing. Looking back now, perhaps there were other, better ways to realize this character in the live-action medium. Certainly the prospect of seeing a master performer like Keith David embrace the role sounds like a much better and more exciting way to finally bring M.O.D.O.K. to live-action properly.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now streaming on Disney+.

Do you wish we got these alternate versions of M.O.D.O.K.? Let us know in the comments!