The depiction of the Marvel comic character MODOK (short for Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania quickly led to fans joking about his appearance. According to actor Corey Stoll, he also laughed when he first saw the character.
In an interview with THR, Stoll — who appeared in the first Ant-Man film as Darren Cross/Yellowjacket and appears in Quantumania as MODOK — discussed how they made MODOK happen on set. According to Stoll, he got to wear the motion capture dots on his face and went through the scenes with the actors involved.
“It was really cool, and it actually felt closer to developing a new play where I was there right before they started principal photography,” said Stoll. “So everybody was in town, and the whole cast and Peyton [Reed] and Jeff [Loveness] were in the room. And I had the dots on my face, and there was a camera for performance capture. And then we went through all of my scenes, and they could throw out some alternate lines or change things around. We could do the scene in a million ways without having to wait for camera and lights or anything. And so it really just felt like we were playing. It was really fun, and if that could be the way I film everything for the rest of my career, I would be happy.”
Of course, one of the biggest reactions to Stoll’s portrayal of MODOK is how he looks without the mask covering his face. The character, who was shrunken into the Quantum Realm at the end of Ant-Man, was left injured and crushed, with Kang turning him into MODOK.
However, without the mask, the character appears just as a giant, floating head of Stoll’s. When the actor first saw this, he admitted he found it hilarious, calling it “weird” and “disturbing,” but “hilarious” at the same time.
“I laughed hysterically, but it’s also deeply disturbing,” Stoll said. “If you ever get the chance to see your face warped and placed inside a little rocket wheelchair, you’ll know how I feel. [Laughs]. It’s pretty weird.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now out in theaters.
