We reported four months ago that Evangeline Lilly and Corey Stoll would be in Ant-Man. We speculated Lilly would play Janet Van Dyne (The Wasp) or a new character created for the movie: the daughter of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Yet as recently as last Monday, Lilly was not admitting she’s in the movie (more on that in a moment). Now we finally have a confirmation of the most undeniable kind: Evangeline Lilly standing on the stage at Hall H during Marvel’s Comic-Con panel, being introduced as a lead in Ant-Man.
Evangeline Lilly will be playing Hope Van Dyne, rather than Janet Van Dyne. And in this movie, Hope’s the daughter of Hank Pym (and, presumably, The Wasp is her mom).
They also revealed Corey Stoll is playing Darren Cross, AKA Yellowjacket. CBM reports:
He and Pym are initially business partners, but they split when Cross starts taking their company in a sinister direction. Apparently it’s Cross who hired Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang to be the “new” Ant-Man.
We’re also glad to hear Lilly and Stoll aren’t among the cast members who just bailed. Deadline reports Patrick Wilson, Matt Gerald, and Kevin Weisman have left the film.
We’re told by insiders that Gerald and Weisman’s characters were omitted in the newly evolved version of the script. Wilson, on the other hand, had a scheduling conflict as production on the movie got delayed, and that is why he won’t be there.
As for Edgar Wright’s departure, Evangeline Lilly diplomatically commented on it earlier this week in an interview with /film:
“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.”
Meanwhile, our interview with Evangeline Lilly was far more focused on booze and breakfast. Priorities. We have them sorted.