We all know and love Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania but there was a time when she was offered major roles in other comic book movies. Interestingly, the Lost star revealed why she turned down roles in the X-Men films and the lead role in the Wonder Woman reboot.
Evangeline Lilly was recently a guest on the Happy Sad Confused podcast where she admitted that her Real Steel co-star Hugh Jackman had offered her a role in an X-Men movie.
“[He] was like, ‘Hey, so, the X-Men guys are asking me if I would approach you because they know that you won’t talk to anybody,” Lilly said. “They knew I was working with you and were interested to know if it would ever interest you to do an X-Men thing.”
Amazingly, Lilly declined the offer but admitted that she felt bad about turning Wolverine down.
“I was like, ‘No. It doesn’t interest me. I’m not interested,'” she said. “I was like, ‘I feel like such a dick because I’m talking to an X-Men! The X-Men! And I’m telling him, ‘No that doesn’t appeal. Like, what?!’ I felt so rude!”
Interestingly, a shot at being an X-Man isn't the only major role that Evangeline Lilly turned down. She also addressed the unproduced Wonder Woman reboot that Joss Whedon was developing, confirming she was offered the role.
“I think my impression, coming away from it, was I had no desire and he could tell,” Lilly said, pointing out that she was “too young to be that polite” to pretend to be interested in becoming the DC character.
“It didn’t appeal and there was nothing about the meeting that, like, jazzed me or made me think like, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta do this.’ Nothing clicked. Nothing felt good,” Lilly stated. “I am way too authentic for my own good. I mean, it’s not good. If I am not impressed, you’ll know. And maybe you shouldn’t know sometimes.”
We're not surprised that Evangeline Lilly was offered the roles but it looks like she made the right decision by waiting for a major role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Evangeline Lilly returns as Hope van Dyne in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania which is now screening in theaters worldwide.
Related: Is Kate Bishop in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania?
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