Discussing the characters that didn’t make the cut for The Winter Soldier, screenwriter Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely told SFX that it wasn’t too difficult to bring classic Captain America foe Batroc the Leaper (played by MMA fighter Georges St-Pierre) to the live-action universe, but a character like the weird, recurring villain M.O.D.O.K. — a giant head encased in a robotic, flying suit — might prove a little more difficult. That hasn’t stopped Markus from campaigning for the character in each film, though.
“There are people that I’m always wanting to bring in,” said Markus. “I want to put M.O.D.O.K. into something, but you can’t just drop a giant floating head in! It’s not like ‘Oh, we have to go talk to this guy – there’s something I should tell you about him first…’ Suddenly the whole movie needs to take on that structure in order to accommodate him. I never win that fight!”
“But you will never rest,” added McFeely.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appearing in a 1967 issue of Tales of Suspense, M.O.D.O.K. is a supervillain that has fought with Captain America on numerous occasions over the decades. A mutated scientist who once worked for the organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (which was introduced to Marvel’s cinematic universe in Iron Man 3), M.O.D.O.K. eventually becomes one of the group’s most potent weapons and its occasional leader. His name is an acronym for “Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing” (the “M” has stood for “Mental,” “Mobile,” or “Mechanized” at various points in his history).
Markus, who has co-written both Captain America films so far with McFeely and will return for the third installment, has a well-established history as a fan of M.O.D.O.K., going so far as to suggest in 2011 that Game Of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage could be the perfect choice for the character.
The likelihood of seeing M.O.D.O.K. in future installments of the Captain America franchise remains slim, but you can’t fault Markus for keeping up his campaign — or his fellow M.O.D.O.K. fans (myself included) for keeping hope alive.
The sequel to Captain America: The Winter Soldier is scheduled to hit theaters May 6, 2016.
