One of the major, and most valid, criticisms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the last decade has been the franchise’s lack of memorable villains. The MCU has definitely improved the quality of their bad guys over the last few years thanks to the likes of Killmonger and Thanos, but that doesn’t make Yellowjacket, Malekith or Aldrich Killian any less forgettable.
Obviously, the MCU is sold on the strength of its heroes so the argument could be made that the villains don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but the way Thanos was presented as a major threat to the studio’s entire universe was one of the reasons that the character worked so well as the main antagonist of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
With the Infinity Saga now over, the franchise could be on the lookout for a new big bad, but the focus should really be on making sure each standalone movie has a nemesis that proves to be a real match for the title character. On that note, in a recent interview, Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed which villains they’d still like to see join the MCU at some point in the future, saying the following:
“I always go back to the guy I always want to see on screen, which is MODOK. Also, part of me… it’s hard to say if he was officially destroyed, I wouldn’t mind seeing a third incarnation of Zola. Now in a robotic body. We got him from human to face on screen, I’d like to get him mobile now. I can’t say that’s going to happen, but it’d be fun.”
It sounds like Markus and McFeely are big fans of bad guys with big heads that need robot bodies to get things done, and while MODOK would likely be a good fit for one of the more outlandish MCU franchises like Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor, it isn’t as if you could imagine someone like Ant-Man or Spider-Man going up against a mutated scientist in a hover chair whose name literally translates as Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing.
