While the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues its wind up into a fully-fledged phase 4, the television and film side of the company are closer than ever before. Between WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, as well as every other upcoming Disney Plus show, it's clear the studio is doubling down on expanding the MCU first and foremost. Still, that doesn't mean that MCU material is the only thing coming out of the Marvel brand lately, with Hulu's M.O.D.O.K. set to premiere in May.
One of the smaller projects ramping up towards release, Marvel's M.O.D.O.K. is a comedy series made with stop-motion animation that features one of the Marvel universe's more eccentric villains. Unlike other MCU shows, however, M.O.D.O.K. isn't going to be available on Disney Plus, coming to Hulu instead, and it doesn't have any known connections to the MCU.
That's probably for the best, as having to maintain continuity could have been a pretty big restriction, and having its own version of the Marvel Universe will allow storylines to be a bit more out there in the series. Case in point, the show revolves around M.O.D.O.K., voiced by Patton Oswalt, having spent years of his life trying and failing at a career as a supervillain. As his evil organization AIM and his own marriage start to crumble, M.O.D.O.K. has to start facing some big questions about how to turn things around and get his supervillain career back on track.
The latest poster for the series doesn't have much in the way of new information, but it does give audiences a nice close-up look at the design of M.O.D.O.K. himself. Another benefit of the stop motion styling is that it allows the series to go with a look that is much more faithful to the original comics. M.O.D.O.K. looks pretty much identical to his original appearance, big head, tiny limbs, and all, just with a slightly more human-looking face.
As for style and tone, the poster also has a very strong purple-based palette with some orange highlights and a fun little mechanical theme in the styling of the logo and M.O.D.O.K's own Dr. Octopus-style robot claws. The tagline also reads "World Class Villain. Suburban Nightmare," so clearly the show is setting expectations off with a strong lean into the comedic setup.
For those who aren't sold by the poster, Hulu also released a M.O.D.O.K. trailer not too long ago for a closer look at the actual tone of the final release. Hopefully, the project can make the most of the character, even if it doesn't have the backing of the MCU proper.
Marvel's M.O.D.O.K. hits Hulu on May 21, 2021.
Source: Marvel