Evangeline Lilly turned down a role in an X-Men movie: "I wasn’t into superhero movies"

Evangeline Lilly in Ant-Man and the Wasp
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Ant-Man and the Wasp star Evangeline Lilly has revealed that she turned down a role in an X-Men movie when it was offered to her by Hugh Jackman.

“[Jackman] 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. They knew I was working with you and were interested to know if it would ever interest you to do an X-Men thing,'" Lilly told the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via Deadline). The two actors worked together on the 2011 sci-fi movie Real Steel, directed by Shawn Levy. 

"I was like, 'No. It doesn't interest me. I'm not interested. 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!"

Lilly also revealed that she turned down an offer from Joss Whedon to play Wonder Woman for an unproduced DC movie in the '00s. The main reason why? "Honestly, I wasn't into superhero movies and that's the main reason why, in both of these instances, I just kind of felt like I don't know what I get out of this. I often was very critical of them. Like, I was known to mock them and treat them as lower forms of entertainment until Marvel came around."

Of course, Lilly went on to play Hope van Dyne, AKA Wasp, in 2015's Ant-Man and its 2018 follow-up, Ant-Man and the Wasp, as well as making an appearance in Avengers: Endgame. She reprises the role in the newly released threequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in theaters now. Make sure you're up to date with the story so far with our recap of Marvel Phase 4 and look ahead to what's to come with our guide to Marvel Phase 5. For more on Ant-Man 3, check out our guides to the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ending explained and the movie's post-credits scenes explained.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.