Even though studios have their own process for casting actors in movies, that hasn’t stopped certain celebrities from campaigning for specific roles, especially in superhero movies. Recent examples include Vin Diesel using Facebook to pitch himself as Black Bolt in Inhumans and Tyrese Gibson trying to score the role of Green Lantern. Now joining the list of actors eager to nab a role in a superhero movie is mustached comedian and The Daily Show contributor John Hodgman, who has his eye on a certain gigantic-headed villain from Marvel Comics.
Yesterday, Hodgman went on Twitter to pitch the idea of Marvel casting him as the super villain M.O.D.O.K. (Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing).
Evidently some of Hodgman’s followers agree with him, as several pieces of fan art have already popped up giving us an idea of what he would look like as the bulbous-headed evildoer.
In the comics, M.O.D.O.K. was originally George Tarleton, a technician working for the terrorist organization A.I.M. (Advanced Ideas in Mechanics). Using the power of the Cosmic Cube, they transformed him into M.O.D.O.C. (the ‘C’ standing for Computing), a super-intelligent being with psionic abilities, but also requiring a floating chair to navigate due to his enlarged head and shrunken limbs. Eventually he grew too powerful and killed his former masters. Now classifying himself as M.O.D.O.K., he took over A.I.M. and became a frequent enemy of Captain America and the Avengers.
Stephen McFeely, one of the co-writers of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, mentioned last year that he’s looked for a way to realistically include M.O.D.O.K. in the MCU, but the main issue is restructuring the narrative in order to accommodate the guy with the giant head, and that’s easier said than done. McFeely and his partner Christopher Markus are also writing 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, but with Baron Zemo as the primary antagonist and Tony Stark as Steve Rogers’ ideological opponent, it’s unlikely that M.O.D.O.K. could be squeezed in.
However, depending on whether Captain America (be it Rogers or a successor) gets another movie after Avengers: Infinity War Part II, Marvel might want to consider using M.O.D.O.K. as an antagonist. We’re getting a robot bent on genocide in Avengers: Age of Ultron and a movie based around a society of people who gain abilities when exposed to a strange mist. Putting in a mastermind with a gigantic head may require some outside-the-box thinking, but it’s doable. If that ends up happening, Marvel should consider giving Hodgman a call.
