Yesterday, Lost and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania star Evangeline Lilly confirmed she's stepping away from acting for the foreseeable future. As a result, it appears her time as the MCU's Hope Van Dyne has ended.
Lilly did leave the door open to possibly working in Hollywood again but seems to have no immediate plans to do so. In a statement shared with Variety, the actress also confirmed she's under no "contractual obligations to anybody."
That's almost certainly a reference to Marvel Studios and the fact she saw out her contract with the Ant-Man threequel.
"I have actually been on a hiatus from acting for the past three years already (since finishing work on 'Quantumania')," Lilly told the trade. "This time outside of the business has brought me a grounding sense of fulfillment and joy."
"I could return tomorrow, two years from now or never, but at the moment I am not actively pursuing any work in the industry and am not under any contractual obligations to anybody. I am devoting my time to my humanitarian work and my writing."
We don't know what this means for The Wasp moving forward; Marvel Studios may be able to convince the actress to suit up for a cameo role in the next Avengers movies or, if the plan is for Hope to play a much larger role, then we're sure recasting the character isn't off the table.
After making a name for herself in Lost, Lilly went on to star in two of The Hobbit movies before joining the MCU in 2015. The Wasp wasn't the first superhero role offered to her as she was eyed for the X-Men franchise and as the title character in Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman movie.
"[Hugh] was like, 'Hey, so, the X-Men guys are asking me if I would approach you because they know that you won’t talk to anybody. They knew I was working with you and were interested to know if it would ever interest you to do an X-Men thing,'" Lilly said last year of a conversation she and Jackman had on the set of Real Steel. "I was like, 'No. It doesn’t interest me. I’m not interested.'"
As for her meeting with Whedon, she added, "I think my impression, coming away from it, was I had no desire and he could tell."
"It didn’t appeal and there was nothing about the meeting that like, jazzed me or made me think like, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta do this.’ Nothing clicked. Nothing felt good. I am way too authentic for my own good. I mean, it’s not good. If I am not impressed, you’ll know. And maybe you shouldn’t know sometimes."
Do you think Marvel Studios should recast The Wasp?