At the Marvel Studios panel held in Hall H of Comic-Con: International on Saturday, Marvel announced that Lost and The Hobbit star Evangeline Lily would be playing Hope Van Dyne, Hank Pym’s daughter.
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Interestingly, there was no mention of Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. The Wasp, who is Pym’s wife and Hope’s mother in the comics. Michael Douglas, who plays Pym in the film, teased a bit about that situation in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, while talking about his characters backstory in the film.
“My name is Dr. Henry Pym. I’m an entomologist,” Douglas said. “I’m also a physicist and I discovered in 1963, a way, a serum to reduce a human being to the size of ant maintaining the strength. Not only that, but I was able to find a way to communicate with the ants. But unfortunately during this process, a tragic personal accident happened with my wife, my daughter, Evangeline, Hope. So I’ve had to pass my powers and strengths onto a mentor. Because my partner, my partner, Corey over there, f–ked me good.”
So is Janet Van Dyne already dead in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? With the film having aged Pym up, it’s entirely possible. It also opens up the possibility that Hope will end up becoming the Wasp of the film universe, so that Marvel Studios can still use Scott Lang as their primary Ant-Man, while keeping the classic pairing of Ant-Man and the Wasp intact as well.
While Hope doesn’t exist in the mainstream Marvel Universe, she does exist in the MC2 universe as Hope Pym, the Red Queen.
Ant-Man comes to theaters July 17, 2015.
