Evangeline Lilly Says ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ Shows a ‘Vulnerable Side’ of Hope
The release date for Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is quickly approaching on Feb. 17, 2023. And the actor who plays Hope van Dyne, Evangeline Lilly, said fans can expect to see a very different, more vulnerable side of her character in Ant-Man 3 compared to the first two Ant-Man movies.
Hope’s journey through the ‘Ant-Man’ movies
The first Ant-Man movie arrived in 2015. It follows ex-criminal Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) as he becomes the size-shifting superhero Ant-Man. He trains under scientist Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who developed the Ant-Man suit. Hank’s daughter, Hope, also helps in spite of her rocky relationship with her father.
Hope takes on a bigger role in the sequel, 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. The movie sees Hope, Hank, and Scott working to open a tunnel to the Quantum Realm to save Hank’s wife, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). Janet was trapped there after shrinking to subatomic levels decades prior. Now adopting the moniker of The Wasp, which Janet originally held, Hope gets a suit of her own.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the third installation in the Ant-Man franchise. Marvel hasn’t shared many plot details yet. But Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) will seemingly take center stage as the movie’s main antagonist.
Evangeline Lilly teases Hope’s character arc in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania cast shared more about the upcoming movie. And they explained how their characters differ in the new film from previous Ant-Man movies.
“We got introduced to Hope as a pretty capable, kicka** woman from the get-go,” Lilly said. “She was fully prepared to do anything that was needed. And she always seems to have the answer, and she always seems to be on top of everything.”
The actor went on to describe how Hope has become more “vulnerable” since the first film. And she teased a more emotionally compelling arc for Hope in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
“I was really, really excited to have an opportunity in this third film where she’s gone from a caged-off woman to a woman who has opened her heart three separate times,” Lilly said. “One: her heart to Scott, and then her reparations with her father, and then bringing her mother back from the Quantum Realm.”
She then compared Hope in Ant-Man to the Grinch. “Her heart had grown three times as big, which makes it three times more vulnerable,” Lilly said. “So I was really excited to have a chance to show a side of her where she would make mistakes. She would be fragile. And she wouldn’t always have the right answer.”
Lilly doesn’t actually like superhero movies
Although Evangeline Lilly’s portrayal of Hope in the Ant-Man movies has received generally positive reviews, the actor did stumble into controversy last year when she revealed she’s not a fan of superhero movies.
“I have not seen all of it, and I do try,” Lilly said of the Marvel Cinematic Universe while speaking to Collider. “I see it as almost like homework. I need to know what’s going on in the world. I need to understand when there’s references made in scripts.”
However, she quickly clarified that she does in fact appreciate the “incredible universe” Marvel has created, regardless of how much she likes the superhero genre as a whole.
“I’m also a fan of Marvel, as in I’m a fan of the filmmakers that are creating this incredible universe,” Lilly said. “I think they are the best superhero movie makers I’ve ever witnessed. And I know that I’m not alone in that, so that’s not a revolutionary thing to say, except that I don’t actually like superhero movies. So coming from me, that’s different. I think they’re really smart. I think they’re really, really, really good at what they do and it’s why I wanted to get involved with this franchise.”
