Who plays MODOK in Ant-Man 3: Corey Stoll’s character explained

A new trailer for Ant-Man 3 has given fans a first look at supervillain M.O.D.O.K. in the movie, and confirmed that an old Ant-Man character is returning.

We’re just over a month away from the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where the hierarchy of power in the MCU is set to change, thanks to the presence of Kang the Conqueror.

But another major Marvel villain is making his celluloid debut in the movie in the shape of M.O.D.O.K., and thanks to the newest Ant-Man trailer we’ve got a first look at the character, as well as a glimpse at the actor playing him.

Warning, slight Ant-Man spoilers ahead!

Who is MODOK in the comics?

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, M.O.D.O.K. first appeared in the pages of Tales of Suspense #93 in September 1967 where he acted as an antagonist to Captain America.

With a really big head on a really little body, the character’s name is an acronym for Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing. This is how Marvel describes the character in the company’s 101 series…

When the dangerous and subversive think tank Advanced Idea Mechanics – aka A.I.M. – needed a way to study their Cosmic Cube, they transformed a lab tech names George Tarleton into M.O.D.O.C., the Mental Organism Designed Only for Computing.

Eventually M.O.D.O.C.’s hyper-intelligence and endless ego caused him to turn on A.I.M. and overthrow them. As their new leader, he dropped the ‘C’ in his name for a ‘K,’ and the ‘Computing’ for ‘Killing.’

As A.I.M.’S destructive driving force, M.O.D.O.K. clashed with multiple major heroes including Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and The Fantastic Four.

M.O.D.O.K.’s head is gigantic due to his brain being mutated to a grotesque size. With his body unable to support that weight, he uses a weaponized hovering throne dubbed the Doomsday Chair.

M.O.D.O.K. wields a genius-level intellect and a computer-like ability to store and recall information. When you add in his telepathic powers and mental beam, he makes for a formidable floating foe.

Who plays MODOK in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania?

Corey Stoll plays M.O.D.O.K. in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Corey Stoll had minor roles in the likes of Salt, Midnight in Paris, and The Bourne Legacy, but his first major role was playing politician Pete Russo in the Netflix series House of Cards.

He’s since divided his time between movies and TV, appearing in the likes of The Deuce and Billions on the small screen, and Black Mass, First Man, and West Side Story in cinemas.

He made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2015, playing villain Darren Cross in the first Ant-Man movie.

How is Corey Stoll playing MODOK in Ant-Man 3?

With George Tarleton transforming into M.O.D.O.K. in the comics, it’s clear that Marvel is doing something very different with the character in the movies, with the new trailer suggesting that Corey Stoll’s Darren Cross is now the super-brained baddie.

In the first Ant-Man movie, Cross was a brilliant scientist with questionable ethics, who used Pym tech to turn himself into supervillain Yellowjacket. At the end of the movie he battles Scott Laing, and Ant-Man ultimately shrinks him down until he’s presumably dead.

But you can’t presume anything in the MCU. Yellowjacket’s helmet was glimpsed in Episode 5 of Loki – the series in which Kang was introduced. Plus anything seems possible in the Quantum Realm, with Janet van Dyne stating that Kang can “rewrite existence,” and “shatter timelines.”

With that kind of power at his fingertips, keeping Darren Cross alive or bringing him back from the dead is very possible, but it remains to be seen how and why he ends up with the big head on that little body.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is released on February 17, 2023, while you can read everything we know about the movie here.