‘Ant-Man’ Paul Rudd & ‘Hope’ Evangeline Lilly Contemplated Leaving The Film Following OG Director Edgar Wright’S Exit, Actress Once Said “I Really Was Prepared” ( Photo Credit – IMDb; Wikimedia )
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Paul Rudd’s third solo outing as Scott Lang happened in February this year with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Directed by Peyton Reed (for the third time), the film saw the return of Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne, alongside Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, David Dastmalchian, Katy O’Brian and others.
While we can now not imagine anyone else playing Scott and Hope, did you know the duo contemplated quitting this Marvel superhero franchise before production on the 2015 film began? They were indecisive about playing the lead after the film’s original director and screenplay writer Edgar Wright was removed from the project after eight more years of developing it and not shooting a single scene.
As reported by comicbook.com, in the book, ‘The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’, authors Tara Bennett and Paul Terry reveal that falling the fallout of Edgar Wright with the makers of Ant-Man – the film’s lead couple Paul Rudd (Scott Lang) and Evangeline Lilly (Hope van Dyne) considering leaving the film.
The book quoted ‘Ant-Man’ Paul Rudd saying, “When I found out I was buying groceries in upstate New York, and I got a call. My manager said, ‘Well, I’ve got some bad news.’ I knew immediately. Then Edgar called, and I clicked over. And then I stood in the parking lot of an A&P for about an hour and a half talking to Kevin [Feige] about, ‘What are you gonna do? We have to try and get Edgar back.’ I mean, I was really worried and nervous.”
Evangeline Lilly added, “Being the blue-collar, underdog person that I am, I assumed the big brass were muscling out this passionate creative who had built something over eight years with all of his blood, sweat, toil, and love, and that it was an injustice.” She continued, “And I was so glad that I hadn’t signed my contract yet. I really was prepared to walk with him.”
She added, “I went through the process I’d been through already: I’d read the script, gone through script notes and creative discussions, and I thought, ‘That doesn’t reflect what my experience has been, so maybe I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe there’s a good reason for the split, on both sides.’”
The book added that Paul Rudd’s decision to stay on the project and work on the script with Adam McKay caused him to fall back in love with the project all over again and remain the hero.
Do you think anyone else would have done justice to Ant-Man and Hope’s roles? Let us know in the comments.
