Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) went from Hank Pym’s (Michael Douglas) protégé to supervillain in the MCU. The character was brought back in Quantumania as MODOK, which had quite the trip that led him to the big screen for the third Ant-Man installment that kicked off Phase 5 for Marvel. In an interview with Collider, Stoll recounted the tease Kevin Feige gave him and his conversation about the character with the director of the trilogy, Peyton Reed.
The idea of coming back came from the Marvel Studios boss, but MODOK was not mentioned. On the red carpet of the first film, the actor recalled getting teased about how the studio would bring him back. Due to the frenzy of being on a red carpet, Feige got pulled away and was not able to give Stoll any more details at that point.
“He [Feige] said, ‘You know, I saw you walking in my neighborhood in L.A. yesterday and I realized how we could bring you back.’ And then he got swept away by press and I had to continue going down the red carpet, and I was like, ‘Cool!’ And we never got to finish that conversation.”
Marvel had plans to bring Cross Back with MODOK in Ant-Man 3
Knowing how Marvel Studios plans things out so far in advance, it could have been to see the actor come back as the big-headed character. Still, it is uncertain if that was the initial plan. What we do know now from the actor’s interview is that eventually, those plans started popping up in conversations. Before the script was written, the idea started to gain traction internally at the studio and with the people behind Quantumania.
When Reed brought things up, it was still too early to give too many details due to Marvel’s secrecy. Still, the star was curious as he was thinking, “How could I come back?” Those thoughts brought out some fun ideas as he joked, “Am I playing a different character? Is it some multiverse thing? Am I the new Iron Man?” Fast forward when details became firm, then the actor got the pitch to turn Darren Cross into MODOK for the third Ant-Man film, which sees seeds get planted for the big plans Marvel has for the next three to four years.
“And then I finally talked to him [Reed] and he said, ‘Do you know this character MODOK?’ I was like, ‘Yes. You mean the guy with the big head?’ They hadn’t written the script yet. They wanted to make sure that I was on board before they did that. I mean, of course I’m gonna do that.”
In the film, his reincarnation ties to the first film, which saw him get sucked into the Quantum Realm. Kang (Jonathan Majors) took him in and transformed him into the Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing. He was a mix of comedic relief in this darker Ant-Man film while also raising the danger to the Ant-Family.