Exclusive: Evangeline Lilly Controversy Has Endangered Her Marvel Future
A trusted and proven inside source for Giant Freakin Robot shares that, due to her recent comments, Marvel is considering whether Ant-Man 3 should be their final movie with Evangeline Lilly.
Update February 2023: Evangeline Lily continued with Marvel and appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Evangeline Lilly has seen her name in the headlines and in the trending topics on social media quite a few times over the past couple of years. Those headlines aren’t often about her work on Ant-Man 3. Instead, they’re about her passionate political beliefs. Often, her name is coming up with the words “canceled” and “controversy”. Many are wondering what the studio will make of that. A trusted and proven inside source for Giant Freakin Robot shares that, due to her recent comments, Marvel is considering whether Ant-Man 3 should be their final movie with Evangeline Lilly.
To be clear, at this time, our source claims that they’re considering ending their working relationship with the actress after the third Ant-Man movie, but our source didn’t know what they’ll yet decide. They say it’s a conversation on the table as Evangeline Lilly’s comments continue to gain media attention. This sounds like her Marvel career may be in jeopardy, but no decisions have yet been made.
Our source wasn’t able to share what Marvel may do with her character if that happens. If they stop working with Evangeline Lilly, will they recast her? Production on Ant-Man 3 has wrapped. Will they need to reshoot some of her scenes? Do they feel that where the movie is at could be a good ending point for her character?
The decision is bound to be a difficult one for Marvel Studios to make. Evangeline Lilly has recently been attending rallies, posting on social media, and generally sharing her views allegedly against COVID-19 vaccine mandates. She claims that she is supporting bodily sovereignty. This past week, a video of Evangeline Lilly issuing a public plea to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went viral. In the video, the actress asked the prime minister of her native country to talk to the protestors. Her public comments have focused mainly on government mandates.
Our source did not share what Marvel considers the main issue when it comes to handling Evangeline Lilly’s career. Is it that they don’t like seeing “cancel Evangeline Lilly” as a trending topic on social media? Could the issue be that when she does interviews to promote Marvel movies, they are worried her political beliefs will become the main focus? Do they have legal concerns about the comments she’s making?
There could be an issue for Marvel that Evangeline Lilly is allegedly speaking against COVID-19 mandates. So far, her comments have mostly been specific to government mandates. She hasn’t publicly, specifically said anything about Marvel or Disney (who own Marvel). However, Disney has issued COVID-19 vaccine mandates for its employees, both on movie productions and its theme parks (though they had to suspend those mandates in the state of Florida).
In the Instagram post from Evangeline Lilly above, she does cite the threat of losing one’s job due to a mandate as an issue she is allegedly committed to being vocal about. It’s unknown how Marvel views that issue. Is it a problem if she is speaking against something specific to their own employment policies? Are they worried about the comments she’s made so far, or how far she’ll go in the future?
