‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’ Star Corey Stoll Discusses His New Role

Warning: Spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ahead! You’ve been warned!

Corey Stoll returns in the new Ant-Man movie as MODOK (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing), a rebuilt version of his character Darren Cross from 2015’s Ant-Man resurrected by Kang (Jonathan Majors) in the quantum realm. In an interview for The Hollywood Reporter, he further discussed the role and the work put into it with Brian Davids.

In it, the Shakespearean actor compares his preparation for this role to his previous work in famous Shakespeare works, from Marcus Brutus in Julius Caesar to Iago in Othello. To him, his character’s death scene with the heroes standing over him was reminiscent of Hamlet’s death with Horatio. After sacrificing himself to save Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and his family from Kang, he is given the title of an Avenger and passes on peacefully. “So it’s funny from the outside, but from the inside, it’s all real,” Stoll explains.

Early in Quantumania’s production, Peyton Reed approached Stoll about possibly resurrecting his character from the first film as MODOK, and Stoll wholeheartedly agreed after looking up the latter villain. Despite his eagerness to reprise the role, Stoll admits that MODOK was both a terrifying challenge and an exciting opportunity for him. He describes how he had to put a lot of faith in the director since he was “putting so much faith into the hands of the filmmakers to complete your performance, and it’s so broad.”

Stoll then performed his role via motion capture alongside the rest of the cast, from Paul Rudd to Kathryn Newton, who plays Scott’s daughter Cassie. Stoll described the experience as fun and would continue to act if he got more chances like this. Thanks to the fact that they would go through all of his scenes without having to change too much lighting, Stoll compares his experience on set to playing around.

Despite having fun with this role, Stoll took his character seriously and delved deep into Darren’s wants, desires, and how his actions led him to become MODOK. Stoll, Reed, and Rudd wanted to show Darren’s need for approval from others in Ant-Man, and his constant need for love from a father figure in Kang as MODOK. “Unfortunately,” Stoll explains, “Kang is an even more abusive father than Hank was.”

When asked if he would consider reprising his role as Darren/MODOK in the future, Stoll admits that he would, but the decision is out of his hands.