After the events of Marvel Studios' monumental Avengers: Endgame, fans finally witnessed the decade-long arc of Thanos' galactic tyranny come to a close. Because of this, fans of the MCU are now left wondering when the next "big bad" will come around, and also who it could be. Some would like to see the likes of Norman Osborn or Kang the Conqueror take the forefront, while others look to characters more recently acquired by Marvel Studios, such as Doctor Doom or Galactus. However, there is another malevolent antagonist from Marvel Comics that many fans have been itching to get a sight of on the silver screen, and it looks as though an Avengers-level actor may have a similar desire in mind.

NEWS

According to a new report by Geeks WorldWide, the heinous Marvel villain MODOK (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) was included in a previous draft of a script written for Ant-Man 3, which was written by actor Paul Rudd himself. On top of starring as the titular hero in both films, Rudd has a screenplay credit for 2015's Ant-Man, as well as credit for helping write the script for the 2017 sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp.

In Ant-Man and the Wasp, one of the film's main antagonists was never actually revealed to the audience, but instead stayed in the shadows behind the shrouded villain's second-in-command, Sonny Burch. Now, Thomas Polito at GWW admits that he "revealed a casting call for a 'mysterious benefactor'" awhile back and believed it was for the role of Norman Osborn, but is now being told that it's "possibly for MODOK."

Also mentioned in the GWW report is further confirmation that Marvel Studios does in fact want to move forward with their own incarnation of the Young Avengers - something that The Direct has already been following. The report says that, despite originally wanting to include the Fantastic Four in the third Ant-Man installment, the studio has since elected to use this threequel as an opportunity to assist in introducing the team of younger heroes to the MCU audience. This Young Avenger team is said to likely be comprised of Cassie Lang (the daughter of Scott Lang), Kate Bishop (the "new" Hawkeye), and Wiccan & Speed (the children of Wanda Maximoff and Vision).

WHAT THIS MEANS

It is worth noting that just because MODOK was included in one draft of the Ant-Man 3 script does not necessarily mean that the character will end up in the movie. MODOK has, however, been a character that Marvel Studios has had their eyes on since as early as 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in which MODOK was originally going to appear as the main antagonist of the film, before that idea was scrapped and replaced with the villain Alexander Pierce. Director Peyton Reed has already expressed interest in using MODOK in the MCU as well, and that he and actor John Hodgman "always talk" about the character, as Hodgman has been "lobbying for years" to play the maniacal evildoer.

Considering Marvel Studios recently acquired the talents of screenwriter Jeff Loveness (Rick & Morty) to helm the Ant-Man 3 script, this new report should appear as nothing short of encouraging to fans to see that talks of using the character in a future MCU project are still very much on the table, and that Marvel Studios has brought in a well-versed writer that can potentially take on a character as wacky as the project's potential antagnoist. And taking into account that MODOK is in fact one of the oddest, most eccentric villains that Marvel has to offer, it is very exciting to see that Marvel Studios is continuing to push the envelope in the industry of superhero film.