Why Marvel’s Evangeline Lilly Liked Filming Ant-Man More Than Its Sequel

Hope in Ant-Man

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in a fascinating place right now, as fans are left to wait a full year until the events of Avengers: Infinity War are resolved with The Russo Brothers' Phase Three finale Avengers 4. There are two Marvel movies in the middle to satiate the fans, beginning with Peyton Reed's Ant-Man and The Wasp. The sequel has been a box office and critical success, while also introducing Evangeline Lilly's Wasp as a bonafide superhero. Lilly definitely stole the show throughout the course of Ant-Man's sequel, but it turns out that the Lost alum actually liked filming the first Ant-Man instead. As she recently told fans,

You guys are going to be so disappointed by my answer. I enjoyed filming Ant-Man more than I enjoyed filming Ant-Man and the Wasp. It was particularly tough for me, because I am controlling. And I had to share this character suddenly with an entire team of people, from a huge team of stunt people -- I had three stunt women on the movie. [I had to share] with the special effects team, with the editors, with the post-production team, with the producers and the director. Everybody had so much more of a say, and work to do, to create this character, that I felt like, at the end of the day, like I was responsible for 25% of her. And that was so hard for me to let go of control and just say 'Okay, I trust you guys and I'm sure it's going to be amazing.' I kept kind of grasping, like 'No! Give her back! I wanna do everything!' So Ant-Man was more fun for me.

Well, I didn't expect that answer. Despite having an arguably larger role in Ant-Man and The Wasp, it turns out that Evangeline Lilly's first performance as Marvel's Hope van Dyne was more enjoyable for the actress. If for no other reason than she had full ownership over her comic book character.

Evangeline Lilly's comments at Fan Expo Canada (via FTW vs WTF) are sure to surprise many Marvel fans, who totally fell in love with The Wasp throughout the course of Ant-Man and The Wasp. After being a supporting character in the first film, Hope's superhero identity was adopted, and she showed Scott Lang how to really get the job done. Since she shared the movie's title with Ant-Man, one would assume that Ant-Man 2 would be Lilly's favorite appearance in the MCU. But alas, all the stunt work, CGI, and Marvel secrecy actually made filming slightly less fun for the actress.

With The Wasp now a full fledged Marvel superhero, it should be interesting to see what comes next for Evangeline Lilly's character. She's currently on the long list of characters who vanished after Thanos' finger snap of death, and it's unclear how she'll be brought back-- if at all.

All will be revealed when Avengers 4 arrives on May 3rd, 2018. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.