Evangeline Lilly Tip Toes Around Questions of Her Actually Being Cast in ANT-MAN



Back in March, reports broke saying actor Evangeline Lilly (LOST, The Hobbit Trilogy) had been cast in a role in Marvel's Ant-Man. Lilly signing on the dotted line with Marvel was also said to be confirmed by a writer for TheWrap toward the end of March.

There hasn't been much news about this for a few months and Marvel Studios has yet to confirm Lilly is in Ant-Man. So Slash Film pressed her for an answer to if she is indeed in Ant-Man.

Here's the snippet from the interview with SlashFilm.com:

Slash Film: Okay, excellent, well that’s something I’m looking forward to. And to preface, I know how this all works, is everybody’s reporting that you are in Marvel’s Ant-Man. Is that something you can say you are in or no? 
Evangeline Lilly: No, I can’t. I don’t know anything about those rumors. 
SF: Okay, all right. Well let’s say if you had The Hobbit and The Squickerwonkers at Comic-Con. Is that everything or do you think you’ll have more to do? 
EL: I’m an actress, but I’m not stupid. I can’t answer that question. 
SF: Okay. Let me try one more that you can laugh at and it’s totally fine. Hypothetically if you were an actress and you signed on to make a film with one director and then that director left over creative differences, how would you feel about it? Hypothetically. 
EL: [Laughs] Well I read the news and have followed the story lines of what’s been going on with Ant-Man. And I think that it’s always a tragedy when somebody works for six years on a passion project and then for, you know, whatever reason ends up distancing themselves from the project. But I think that ultimately when there’s a massive collaboration happening with artistic people or anything that isn’t film work is really a piece of art at the end of the day. That everybody wants to serve the story. Everybody wants to serve the art. And whatever it takes to make the best film is what needs to happen. So, I mean, I can think as somebody in the industry who’s watched the headlines and sort of kept abreast of the news that it is a tragedy. But hopefully it’s a tragedy that will serve the story.


Lilly seems to have been following the removal of writer/director Edgar Wright and replacing him with director Peyton Reed closely. Perhaps close enough to be a part of the Ant-Man cast. Cough, cough ... The Wasp? ... cough. (That's all me speculating, by the way.)

The 2014 San Diego Comic-Con is this week, and Ant-Man reportedly starts filming in Atlanta on August 18, so official cast confirmation should be coming during Marvel Studios' SDCC panel.

Ant-Man is set to release in theaters on July 17, 2015.