Two rumors about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania have merged into a new report claiming an existing Marvel Cinematic Universe villain will return as M.O.D.O.K.
According to GWW, Corey Stoll will not only come back in the third Ant-Man film but the former Yellowjacket will transform into the MCU's M.O.D.O.K. Stoll was the villain in the first Ant-Man, with the finale seeing him shrink down to the Quantum Realm. Fans have long wondered if he could return, seeing as Janet Van Dyne, Hank Pym, and Scott Lang have all gone in and come back out. And earlier this year, a rumor emerged that Stoll would appear in Quantumania.
Obviously, it seemed likely that Stoll would play the same character again, especially after a Yellowjacket Easter egg appeared in Loki. But if the rumor is true, then it seems Darren Cross' time in the Quantum Realm will transform him into the live-action M.O.D.O.K., a villain long rumored to arrive in the MCU.
What makes the potential change more intriguing is that another rumor recently claimed Jim Carrey would play M.O.D.O.K. That rumor said he was likely to appear on She-Hulk and other Disney+ shows, but it also noted there was a chance the character would debut in Ant-Man 3. The throughline to both rumors, of course, is that M.O.D.O.K. will soon join the MCU, and it also seems safe to assume that Stoll will play some sort of role in Quantumania.
This wouldn't be the first time that a long-absent villain returned to the MCU in a new form. The Red Skull seemingly perished in 2011's Captain America: The First Avengers after picking up the Tesseract/Space Stone only to reappear in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War as the guardian of the Soul Stone on Vormir.
Outside of this twist, Marvel Studios also regularly tweaks comic book source material to fit into the universe of the films and TV shows. Considering how unusual of a character M.O.D.O.K. is, having an existing villain mutated by a parallel dimension isn't hard to imagine. And the Yellowjacket suit could easily be warped into M.O.D.O.K.'s similar yellow armor.
For now, however, all of these are simply rumors until more concrete info about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrives ahead of its July 28, 2023 release date.
Source: GWW