Evangeline Lillyas Wonder Woman? It’s something that could have happened, but it wasn’t meant to be. Lilly, no stranger to comic book movies, can be seen reprising her role as Hope van Dyne, aka Wasp, in the new sequelAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But she could have stepped into that realm much sooner, as Lilly can recall turning down the opportunity to join a superhero staple at least two times in years past.
The revelation came in a new interview on theHappy Sad Confusedpodcast with Josh Horowitz (viaEntertainment Weekly). Lilly first recounts the story of when she was working withX-Menstar Hugh Jackman on the 2011 filmReal Steel. According to Lilly, Jackman had approached her on the set claiming he’d been asked to gauge her interest in joining theX-Menfranchise. However, as Lilly recalls, she rejected that invitation, telling JackmanX-Menhad no appeal to her.
“[He] was like, ‘Hey, so, theX-Menguys 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 anX-Menthing… I was like, ‘No. It doesn’t interest me. I’m not interested,'” she admitted. “I was like, ‘I feel like such a dick because I’m talking to an X-Men!TheX-Men! And I’m telling him, ‘No that doesn’t appeal. Like, what?!’ I felt so rude!”
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Evangeline Lilly Declined Wonder woman
Lilly then explained how she had also rejected the role of Wonder Woman for a film Joss Whedon was making that was later scrapped. She remembers having a meeting with Whedon and feeling unimpressed with the story they had in mind for the ill-fatedWonder Womanfilm. Lilly admits she was “too young to be polite” at that time, and didn’t pull punches when letting Whedon know her opinion.
“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,” she explained. 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."
Lilly adds that she got the impression thatJoss Whedonhad taken some offense to all of this, but she continues to explain how she’s completely okay with potentially burning that bridge, wanting to stay true to herself no matter the cost.
“I was okay with that. I was okay with burning bridges. I was okay with not having everyone in Hollywood wanna work with me. I just always had to do what felt right for me. And honestly I wasn’t into superhero movies and that’s the main reason why, in both of these instances, I just kind of felt like I don’t know what I get out of this.”
The actress admits she’d been very critical for a long time of all superhero movies, but it had beenAnt-Manthat eventually encouraged her to come around to getting in on that genre with her role as Wasp.
“I often was very critical of them. Like, I was known to mock them and treat them as lower forms of entertainment until Marvel came around…. When I [got the offer for Wasp] , I was like, ‘Oh, they’re doing something very different and very cool.'”
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniahits theaters on Jul 09, 2025.
