The list of recognizable names that haven’t joined a superhero franchise grows thinner by the day, but if it wasn’t for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then future Ant-Man stalwart Evangeline Lilly could have ended up rejecting her biggest opportunity by far.
In an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the longtime Wasp admitted that she was approached by none other than Hugh Jackman himself to gauge her interest in joining 20th Century Fox’s X-Men saga, only to tell the iconic Wolverine star directly to his face that she wasn’t interested.
“He was like, ‘Hey, so, the X-Men guys are asking me if I would approach you because they know that you won’t talk to anybody. They knew I was working with you and were interested to know if it would ever interest you to do an X-Men thing. I was like, ‘No. It doesn’t interest me. I’m not interested.’ I was like, ‘I feel like such a dick because I’m talking to an X-Man! The X-Man! And I’m telling him, ‘No that doesn’t appeal. Like, what?!’ I felt so rude!”
Even being asked by the mutton-chopped mutant couldn’t change Lilly’s mind, and she went on to explain why she didn’t feel as though that particular set of comic book adaptations would have been the right career move at the time.
“It didn’t appeal and there was nothing about the meeting that like, jazzed me or made me think like, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta do this.’ Nothing clicked. Nothing felt good. I am way too authentic for my own good. I mean, it’s not good. If I am not impressed, you’ll know. And maybe you shouldn’t know sometimes.”
Ironically, Jackman has since boarded Lilly’s world of costumed crimefighters after coming out of retirement for Deadpool 3, and there’s always the chance they’ll end up crossing paths by the time Avengers: Secret Wars comes around.