“Ant-Man” director Peyton Reed is looking forward to exploring Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Scott Lange's (Paul Rudd) relationship in the film's upcoming sequel, “Ant-Man and the Wasp”.
We last saw Hope and Scott in Marvel's summer hit, “Ant-Man,” smooching in the hallway after a successful takedown of the villainous Yellow Jacket, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll). Hope and Scott bonded over weeks of planning their heist of the Yellow Jacket suit, especially since they were spending day in and day out training, fighting, and working together.
While the original Ant-Man and Wasp in the comics were Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne – Hope's parents – Marvel Studios is passing those mantles on to Scott and Hope, who will presumably be teaming up together in the 2018 summer film, “Ant-Man and the Wasp”.
According to Newsarama, director Peyton Reed said the following, regarding Hope in the sequel:
“Part of thing that we”re going to explore, as shown in the comics, is how [the Ant-Man and Wasp] are such a great duo and partnership. Part of that, in any partnership, is how they relate to each other as people. Where will their personal relationship be at that point, and what will be their fighting style together?”
Hope did extensive trailing in the film with Scott, which Evangeline shares about in the “Ant-Man” featurette below:
Evangeline Lilly also shares in the video below that she approached the role of Hope Van Dyne as a woman who was raised by two superheroes. Her relationship with her father Hank, while strained, is based on wanting to reconcile with him, despite the pain of the past:
It will be fascinating to see Hope and Scott not just play lovers on screen, but partners, something we haven't seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in “Captain America: The First Avenger.” While most of the Marvel movies feature strong relationships (Tony and Pepper, Jane and Thor) this will be the first time the couple in the film is also a superhero duo.
Judging from Hope's reaction to seeing her Wasp costume for the first time at the end of “Ant-Man”, I think we can agree with her sentiment that, “It's about time.”
“Ant-Man and the Wasp” hits theaters on July 2, 2018.