Marvel had to make a strong push with Ant-Man this weekend at their panel at SDCC and they did what they could, though there will always be the fans that will be against the film for a variety of reasons (though some will waiver when the first trailer comes out). Kicking off the panel Saturday night at Hall H, Kevin Feige and his Marvel Studios team put the film into a bit more focus while dealing with a few character changes. The biggest loss is that Patrick Wilson had to drop out of the production due to scheduling issues. On the clarification side, we finally got formal confirmation (via press release below too) that Evangeline Lilly is indeed on board for the film to play the role of Hope Pym. There’s a lot of speculation that it may be a cover for Janet Van Dyne, but there is a Hope Pym character in the comics in one of the alternate worlds so it could be reworked into the cinematic continuity easily enough.
Corey Stoll, currently playing the lead in The Strain, has gotten the nod as Darren Cross, who will be playing Yellowjacket in the film. Hank Pym was his mentor and the two worked together until Cross takes the company in a different direction, which eventually gets him involved in the particles that can make Ant-Man.
“Corey brings depth to every role he plays. As a major part of the Ant-Man ensemble, we all wanted an actor who could be both cunning and sympathetic, and help create a character as dynamic as Marvel’s best antagonists,” says Kevin Feige.
When talking about Lilly, Feige went on to say, “We’ve been fans of Evangeline for years, and couldn’t be more pleased that she’s agreed to join us on Ant-Man’s journey to the big screen. We look forward to audiences learning more about her character when she joins forces with Hank Pym and Scott Lang in 2015.”
Directed by Peyton Reed, the film lands on July 17th, 2015. It stars Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Michael Peña, Evangeline Lilly, and Corey Stoll.
Plot concept: Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang (Rudd) must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas), protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.
Evangeline Lilly and Corey Stoll have found their way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the female lead and antagonist, respectively, in Marvel’s “Ant-Man,” in theaters July 17, 2015!
Lilly will play Hope Pym, the daughter of Hank Pym, while Stoll will play Darren Cross, a.k.a. Yellowjacket, the antagonist of the film. The two join stars Paul Rudd (Scott Lang) and Michael Douglas (Hank Pym), along with director Peyton Reed, for the size-changing super hero’s first cinematic adventure.
“We’ve been fans of Evangeline for years, and couldn’t be more pleased that she’s agreed to join us on Ant-Man’s journey to the big screen,” said Marvel’s Kevin Feige. “We look forward to audiences learning more about her character when she joins forces with Hank Pym and Scott Lang in 2015.
“Corey brings depth to every role he plays,” continued Feige. “As a major part of the Ant-Man ensemble, we all wanted an actor who could be both cunning and sympathetic, and help create a character as dynamic as Marvel’s best antagonists.”
Most recently, Lilly impressed audiences around the world with her portrayal of the willful and skilled Elfin archer Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s second installment of the Hobbit trilogy, “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug,” and will once again reprise the role in “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” later this year. Lilly was first introduced to audiences, who turned into die-hard fans, when she played Kate Austen for the entire length of ABC’s international hit series “Lost,” for which she also received a Golden Globe nomination and won a Screen Actor’s Guild Award.
Stoll, celebrated for his Golden Globe-nominated turn as Rep. Peter Russo in “House of Cards” on Netflix, recently appeared in “Non-Stop,” which opened in first place at the box office earlier this year. The actor currently stars in “The Strain” on FX, the series premiere of which earned eight million viewers, and will next appear in Showtime’s award-winning “Homeland” series.
