The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been growing for over a decade now, and the current “Phase” of films is coming to a thematic head with the impending release of the mega-crossover ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ next year. With the recent news that, pardon my Hillbilly, lots o’characters are gonna done be dyin’, a natural shift in the “vibe” of the MCU is a reasonable expectation to follow the film.
In a recent interview, ‘Ant-Man’ star Evangeline Lilly not only echoed that sentiment but expounded on it by referencing her professional entertainment history:
“When I heard about Infinity War and the direction that they’re heading, I did have this moment of realizing, oh, wow, there’s a bit of a déjà vu for me with the ‘Lost’ franchise. We are hitting that [‘Lost’] Season 4 space where everything’s about to shift, and you’re about to lose the solid ground underneath you. And [‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’], of course, will play a part in that.”
For those that didn’t watch the six-season ABC mind-bender series, ‘Lost’ took a decided tonal shift in its fourth season, introducing the idea of “flash-forwards” into the series’ narrative. The glimpses into the future of certain characters were directly at odds with the flashback-only direction of the first three seasons, and it heralded a shift in the series from metered character-based story-telling into a much more frenetic focus on the sci-fi aspect of the show.
Lilly went on in the interview to expound about how the action in ‘Infinity War’ will spill over for her character and others in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp,’ the film that will directly follow the fourth ‘Avengers’ installment:
“Those characters are experts in the quantum realm. In ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp,’ they are trying everything in their power to safely enter the quantum realm and return back from it because they have evidence from the first film that Scott Lang was able to do that. If he can do it, why can’t we? If we do succeed in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp,’ then that does open a whole entire new multi-verse to enter into and play around in. I’m not the story creator, so I can’t tell you what they’re going to do with that. But I definitely see the potential there.”
Lilly also expressed confidence in the guidance that Marvel big-wig Kevin Feige has provided to the MCU thus far, especially with some character-related uncertainty on who lives and who dies coming up:
“Frankly, if it wasn’t Kevin at the helm, I think I would be very, very nervous to be losing these pillars and the people who paved a way for characters like the Wasp. When he walked me through the general story arc of ‘Infinity War,’ it dawned on me: oh, I understand now, we’re moving into this new Phase. The color of that new Phase can be clearly seen emerging through ‘Ant-Man,’ ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ and ‘Thor: Ragnarok.’ It’s just a more colorful, more playful, heightened reality that we’re going to enter.”
Audiences don’t have too much longer to wait before seeing what the MCU has planned for the end of this current Phase!
‘Avengers: Infinity War’ will be released to US theaters on May 4, 2018. ‘And-Man and the Wasp’ will hit American theaters on July 6, 2018.
