A cloud of mystery still surrounds Evangeline Lilly and her role as Hope Van Dyne in ‘Ant-Man.’ The movie clearly deviates quite a bit from the comics, but rumors are swirling that Hope will become The Wasp, possibly in honor of her deceased mother, Janet Van Dyne, who may (or may not) have originated the role years before the movie takes place.
But Hope obviously plays a substantial role, as Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) dons the Ant-Man identity at the request of Hope’s father, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who was the first Ant-Man in the comics.
The following clip has been glimpsed in part in some of the earlier trailers for the movie and shows Hope attempting to teach Scott how to properly throw a punch. Scott, an ex-con, thinks he has it all in the bag, but Hope proves he has a ways to go.
It’s possible that Lilly had a hand (no pun intended) in this scene taking place, as she states:
[Hope] gets some physical stuff. She didn’t originally. That was one of the additions that came through me making suggestions and Marvel coming back and saying, “Wait till you see what we did.” [laughs] They’ve made her a pretty physically capable character.
Check it out below:
Expect Hope to take a pretty proactive role in the movie. Lilly herself said that she managed to sign on at just the right time, as Edgar Wright’s original script was being revised and she requested that her role be beefed up to more than just a weak supporting character.
“I’m lucky enough to have gotten involved with the film when they were still rewriting it from the original Edgar Wright draft… I got a chance to sort of say, “Hey, why don’t you beef up my character and give her a really full arc?” I think one of the things that is easy to have happened in a superhero story is that the female character, whether she be a heroine or not, can often be the wart on the man. She’s just his accompaniment, she’s just there when he’s there, and there’s no real arc or story for her.
There is such an appetite in the comic world from fans to see fully realized, full developed female characters, and Marvel are very supportive in that. All the suggestions that I put forward and the things that I would ask for, like, “What about this?” or “We can do this with her,” they were very amenable to it and they were very open to it. And then they would take it even farther. They would go away, and they could come back to me and say, “Oh, we’ve really done something incredible with Hope.”
I kind of got lucky. I started out thinking I was walking into a film playing a supporting character. It’s now become a trifecta with myself and Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd. I’m not going to turn my nose up at that.”
Want to know about her role? Lilly describes her this way:
“I do work for Pym Tech, and am a fairly senior level scientist at the company. I have a lot of power in the company; I’m one of the board members, I’m also the daughter of the man who created the company, which helps. In her own right, she’s become a very capable, very intelligent young woman, so she very much stands on her own feet in the company. I mean, Hank hasn’t been around in a long time.”
And why isn’t Hope the one donning the size-changing super suit instead of outsider Lang?
“Why isn’t Hope Ant-Man? In a day and age when Ant-Man was first invented, it would have made sense. Why would he hand it off to his daughter? That wouldn’t make any sense at all. But in 2014, why wouldn’t he hand it off to his daughter, especially a daughter as intelligent and capable as Hope? Of course we answer all those questions, but I can’t tell you how or why.”
Lilly did spill that she had signed a multi-picture deal but wasn’t sure when or if she would reprise her role as Hope Van Dyne.
It remains to be seen if Van Dyne will prove as big a fan favorite as previous Marvel supporting characters like Pepper Potts, Maria Hill or Agent Peggy Carter, who got her own spinoff/prequel TV series. What do you think? Are you looking forward to a new butt-kicking lady in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Sources: Comic Book Movie. Screen Rant
