It isn’t each day {that a} Marvel film is impressed by The Simpsons – however, in accordance with Ant-Man 3’s head author, that day has lastly arrived.
Talking to SFX journal (per GamesRadar (opens in new tab)), Jeff Loveness has surprisingly revealed that MODOK – one of many Marvel movie’s secondary villains – was largely influenced by a traditional Simpsons antagonist.
The character in query? Frank Grimes, Homer Simpson’s fellow energy plant employee who turns into more and more incensed along with his colleague’s incapability to do his job correctly. Who knew certainly one of Homer’s most iconic enemies would go on to encourage Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s MODOK, eh?
Quantumania, which kicks off Marvel Part 5 on February 17, marks the introduction of two main Marvel villains. Kang the Conqueror is being positioned because the movie’s main villain – he’ll be the MCU’s subsequent Thanos-level risk, in any case. Nevertheless, Loveness revealed that bringing MODOK to life on the large display screen for the primary time was probably the most gratifying factor about writing the film. Evidently, it helped that he might look to legendary sitcom The Simpsons (all 33 seasons can be found to stream on Disney Plus) for steering in growing the character’s MCU iteration.
“MODOK is perhaps my single favourite factor that I bought within the film,” Loveness defined. “Clearly we’re very trustworthy to the comics with the design and the look, however then there’s a little bit of additional we put into him. I’ll simply say he was impressed by Kevin Kline in A Fish Known as Wanda and Frank Grimes in an outdated Simpsons episode – this actually put-upon, egocentric, entitled however then additionally deeply unhappy, insecure man who is aware of that he bought a s**t deal in life and is attempting to make the most effective of it.”
Who’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s MODOK?
MODOK, which stands for Mechanized Organism Designed for Killing, is not a unknown amount to most Marvel followers. In reality, he is one of many comedian big’s most iconic supervillains – which implies his live-action debut has been a very long time coming.
Within the comics, MODOK was created when – yep, you guessed it – a scientific experiment goes awry. Actual title George Tarleton, MODOK is born when Tarleton’s fellow researchers use Tarleton as a guinea pig for his or her experiments on the Cosmic Dice. The result of their assessments offers Tarleton a genius-level mind, however turns him into an bold, blood-thirsty killer. Not solely that, the experiments tremendously disfigure Tarleton – basically, he turns into a large head, which makes his torso and limbs look tiny by comparability.
Within the MCU, MODOK’s origins have been altered. As an alternative of Tarleton, Darren Cross – the primary villain in 2015’s Ant-Man – is the one that turns into MODOK. On the finish of that Marvel film, Scott Lang/Ant-Man destroyed the dimensions regulator in Cross’ Yellowjacket swimsuit, inflicting Cross to shrink uncontrollably and presumably killing him.
Nevertheless, he survived, and he’ll be out to get revenge on Lang when the latter and his household inadvertently journey to the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man 3. We acquired affirmation that Cross had grow to be MODOK in Quantumania’s newest trailer (learn our Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer breakdown for extra), which you’ll be able to see within the screenshot under:
MODOK may be making his MCU debut in Quantumania, however this is not the primary time we have seen in on the display screen.
He starred in his personal animated TV collection on Hulu in 2021, which was praised by followers and critics alike earlier than it was canceled in Could 2022. In the meantime, MODOK was the first villain in Marvel’s Avengers, the Crystal Dynamics-Eidos-developed online game that wasn’t as properly acquired. Subsequently, Marvel’s Avengers will not obtain any extra updates or content material drops after September 30, 2023.
It is unclear whether or not MODOK’s MCU look will likely be a ‘one and completed’ situation, i.e. he’ll solely function in Ant-Man 3. It might be a disgrace if he does as he is certainly one of Marvel’s most compelling villains. Given the MCU’s penchant for killing off its antagonists, although, we would be shocked if MODOK makes it out of Quantumania alive. If he would not, not less than we’ll reside in a world the place The Simpsons may even affect the world’s hottest movie franchise.
For extra Marvel and Simpsons-based content material, learn up on find out how to watch the Marvel motion pictures so as and see the place we positioned Ant-Man’s earlier solo motion pictures in our Marvel motion pictures ranked listing. Moreover, see in case you agree with our collection of the most effective Simpsons episodes of all time.
