A Huge Marvel Star Just Retired From Acting... For Now
Evangeline Lilly, known for her role as Hope van Dyne in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, says she's stepping away from Hollywood ... marking the second time she's made this announcement.
In an Instagram post, the "Lost" veteran says that she's ready to take some time away from acting and that she's happy with her decision; alongside her caption, the post features a video apparently taken on the Hawaii set of the ABC drama where she fantasizes about where she might be in the future, and it seems to line up with her choice fairly well.
Lilly has appeared in several MCU movies, beginning with the first "Ant-Man" film in 2015. In that standalone origin story, Lilly joins star Paul Rudd — who plays the cinematic universe's tiniest superhero Scott Lang — and Michael Douglas, the latter of whom plays her father Hank Pym. (Michelle Pfeiffer officially joins the part as Janet van Dyne in the immediate sequel "Ant-Man and the Wasp," which is also where Lilly's Hope takes up the mantle as the superheroine the Wasp.) Now, it appears as if Lilly plans to take some time away from the MCU, though it remains to be seen if she shows up in any upcoming projects. She has one future project listed on IMDb, "Happy Life" — which co-stars Ike Barinholtz and Alexandra Daddario — which notes that it's currently in pre-production, so only time will tell how permanent Lilly's break really is.
Evangeline Lilly's career has been characterized by enormous franchises and hit TV shows
Evangeline Lilly might have gotten her start on the small screen, but before long, she joined two different major franchises and officially became a major movie star. The Canadian-born actress played small parts on shows like "Smallville" and "Tru Calling" before auditioning for "Lost," a buzzy new ABC drama created by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof; apparently, a friend helped convince her to audition for the series, but Lilly never thought she'd get the lead role of Kate Austen. After the show closed out its sixth and final season, Lilly told Vulture that while she wasn't taking a hard stance on quitting acting but that it's not her entire life. "I consider acting a day job — it's not my dream; it's not my be-all, end-all," Lilly told the outlet. "So I'll continue to read scripts and I'll continue to keep my mind open, but it's not something I'm pursuing with any kind of intent."
Clearly, Lilly keps acting; in 2011, she appeared alongside Hugh Jackman in the action flick "Real Steel" as boxing gym proprietor Bailey Tallet, and in 2012, she joined Peter Jackson's trilogy of films based on "The Hobbit." For three films, including the two sequels "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" and "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies," Lilly played Tauriel the elf — a character invented for the film adaptations that doesn't appear in J.R.R. Tolkien's original book — who strikes up a romance with a young elf named Kili (Aidan Turner).
Whether or not Lilly makes her break from Hollywood permanent is her business and her business alone ... but if she wants to return to her craft, it seems like the industry will welcome the franchise veteran with open arms.