Months after Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania's release, new looks at rejected designs for Corey Stoll's MODOK have been made public.
The MCU threequel kicked off the year for Marvel Studios, seeing the Ant-Man family go up against its biggest foe yet in Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror.
However, Kang was not the only big bad seen in the film as fan-favorite Marvel Comics villain MODOK (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) showed up for his divisive MCU debut.
This version of MODOK looked the part, being the traditional warped body and head jammed into a suit, but he came with a different origin story than what Marvel fans are used to. If that wasn't enough, apparently Marvel Studios considered taking even bigger liberties with the iconic villain.
Rejected MODOK Designs
A number of Marvel concept artists revealed five scrapped designs for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania's MODOK.
These new looks offer a glimpse at what could have been for the MCU take on the classic Marvel villain, with some being massive departures from what ended up on-screen.
Artist Aleksi Briclot's idea (shown above) was intended "to make [the villain] first look more frightening" with a "huge [metallic] face" being a sort of "totem" before the revealing "what’s inside."
Briclot also posted a creation they dubbed "MODOKZILLA." This was a version of the character that would have "[played] on size and scale" with the villain being reminiscent of "a huge kaiju."
Concept artist Jerad S. Marantz posted his take on a "MODOK Ship concept" he was working on for the film.
He noted that "originally MODOK was going to appear in a ship," keeping "the character's mystery for a little bit;" however, that plan was ultimately abandoned by the Quantumania team.
This ship concert was also explored by Calum Alexander Watt, albeit in a much more gaudy fashion.
With this version of MODOK, Watt "wanted to push the weaponized quality" of the villain, essentially turning him into "a flying missile."
The final design may look more familiar, as it was actually used for the character in the movie.
Created by Anthony Francisco, this version was the "approved final design" for the character, sporting the gold mask and weaponized chair seen in the Marvel Studios blockbuster.
The Many Faces of Marvel's MODOK
It is always exciting when fans get to see these scrapped designs for various characters within the franchises they love. In this instance, it shows just how much work and iteration goes into the process of crafting what eventually ends up on-screen.
The biggest differences found within these early concept drawings seem to be with the scrapped ship idea for the Ant-Man 3 villain. A couple of these renderings lean into that ship angle, which was something that was ultimately abandoned.
While most of the unused designs look relatively close to what showed up in the movie, the pair of "flying missile" designs from Calum Alexander Watt looked to be the most noticeable departure from the final MODOK design.
This take on Corey Stoll's Microversal villain looks like something pulled straight out of the hit video game series Metal Gear Solid, which would have stood out from the zany, almost-cartoony design of the Quantum Realm.
What fans ultimately got on-screen was a mix of the classic comic design of the character and the technology established for the world MODOK found himself in, and many would say it largely worked in the new MCU movie.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will release on premium VOD platforms on April 18.
