Evangeline Lilly Says Marvel Studios Has "Great Intentions" With Its Female Characters, Feige Confirms Wasp Plans

Marvel Studios has revolutionized the way Hollywood approaches cinematic storytelling, but along the way they've received some criticism for the treatment of its female characters. There was a big dust-up regarding Black Widow's character in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and many female fans are still mad that Scarlett Johansson's spy character hasn't been at the center of her own film yet. (Not to mention the whole merchandise debacle that included a plea for diversity from Mark Ruffalo.) But in the coming years, the studio is looking to branch out and create the first female-led comic-based superhero film since Elektra as well as the first superhero film since Blade to feature a black lead actor. (Update: I forgot that Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman is currently slated to beat Captain Marvel to the punch. Sorry about the oversight.) Progress is slow, but it's happening.

At the press junket for Ant-Man this past weekend, star Evangeline Lilly spoke a little bit about the company's "great intentions" and her role as one of the only women in this male-dominated movie:

I think that there is a lot of excitement in the focus groups that we’ve seen already with the female audiences about this character and about the fact that Marvel are really, really taking female characters very seriously. Looking at their line-up, you can see that they have great intentions. As a woman who came into a predominantly male film, I had a great time working with Peyton and the producers on this character because I could see a hunger in them to really, really do right by Hope and do right by their female fans and the female audience. When I pick a role, one of the things that I aspire to is that somebody’s parent will come up to me after the film has come out and say, ‘My daughter idolizes that character. You’re her hero.’ And that’s what we aim for, especially in this brand. We’re in the business of making heroes.

(Extremely light spoilers ahead.)

Despite internet speculation, Lilly doesn't actually don a Wasp costume in this film, and she spoke about how she was happy about that decision:

While we were filming and during post production, there was a lot of buzz on the internet: is Evangeline playing the Wasp? Is she a superhero? I had a lot of questions directed my way about that. I just couldn’t have felt more comfortable or more happy saying, ‘Actually, she is just a really capable, very powerful force to be reckoned with. She doesn’t have a superpower and she doesn’t put on a fancy suit and look dorky in it. [laughter] My super suit was my power suit that I’d put on and go to work in, and be a high level scientist and the chair of the board of a very very powerful corporation. I do think that’s a fantastic example for young women. Marvel are actually doing this incredible campaign right now where they’ve put out a competition to young women in America to create scientific gadget projects and they’re promoting the maths and sciences for young women and young girls. They’ve put a lot of heart and love into that, and they did it a couple of years ago or last year, and I was happy to be the face of that campaign, playing the role of a female scientist in a world where mostly scientists are men is a great role to play.

Very cool. And speaking of Wasp, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that Marvel 100% plans to include the character in future movies down the line:

We have plans for her in the future, and we see that not so subtly in this film.

I won't spoil what exactly he's referring to with that quote, but by the time the lights come up following Ant-Man screenings, everyone will know what those plans are. Ant-Man opens on July 17th.