Hope van Dyne
Hope van Dyne is a fictional character portrayed primarily by Evangeline Lilly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe media franchise, loosely based on the Marvel Comics character Hope Pym. Portrayed as the daughter of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, she was a senior board member of her father's company, Pym Technologies, and later inherits the alias Wasp from her mother, using a suit containing her father's technology to shrink and fly with insect-themed wings. Her appearances have been praised for their authentic and relatable portrayal of a superheroine.
After rekindling her relationship with her father, Van Dyne works with him to rescue her mother who was previously lost to the Quantum Realm, and defeat various supervillains including Yellowjacket and Ghost. Van Dyne later falls victim to the Blip, but is later restored to life and joins the Avengers in a battle against Thanos. Afterwards, she buys back her father's company renaming it the Pym van Dyne Foundation and continues her relationship with Scott Lang becoming a mother figure to his daughter, Cassie Lang. She is later trapped in the Quantum Realm alongside her family and assists them in defeating Kang the Conqueror.
Lilly first appeared as Van Dyne in the 2015 film Ant-Man and later in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Endgame and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Madeleine McGraw portrayed a younger version of Van Dyne. Alternate versions of Van Dyne appear in the Disney+ animated series What If...?, also voiced by Lilly and McGraw. Van Dyne is noted for being the first titular superheroine in a MCU film, preceding Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and Black Panther, and for inspiring the creation of comic superheroine Nadia van Dyne.
Casting and creation
In 2012, director Joss Whedon originally intended to have Zooey Deschanel appear as the Marvel Comics character the Wasp in The Avengers due to potential scheduling conflicts preventing Scarlett Johansson from appearing as Natasha Romanoff. By 2013, production began for a film based on the Marvel Comics character Ant-Man with various actresses in talks to play the female lead including Jessica Chastain, Emma Stone, Rashida Jones and Bryce Dallas Howard. In February 2014, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly was in talks for the role. It was eventually announced at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con that Lilly was cast as an original character named Hope van Dyne, based on the Marvel Comics character Hope Pym who was the daughter of superheroes Hank Pym / Ant-Man and Janet van Dyne / Wasp. She went on to sign a multi-film contract.Initially set to direct the film, Edgar Wright left the film late 2013 and was replaced by Peyton Reed. Lilly noted that she was reluctant to take the role until she read the revised script and met with Reed. After reading the revised script, she felt that the film was "pulled" more into the MCU than Wright's version which "would not have fit in the Marvel Universe". Reed and Lilly alongside Paul Rudd who was set to star as Scott Lang, contributed ideas to the revised script to help flesh out Lilly's character who received a bigger arc and more action sequences as a result. One of the important things for Reed when joining the film was emphasizing both Hope and Janet van Dyne more, given Janet is "a crucial part" of the Ant-Man comics. Hope shares her last name with her mother rather than her father as "statement of her ambivalence toward her father". Lilly noted that the name change "emphasizes the challenges the two characters need to overcome in order to reconcile, as well as reflects the tragedy of Janet's loss that created the rift in the first place".
Characterization
Personality and depictions
Hope van Dyne first appeared in Ant-Man and is introduced as the daughter of former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, and senior board member of her father's company Pym Technologies. Lilly described her character as "capable, strong, and kick-ass", but said that being raised by two superheroes resulted in Hope being "a pretty screwed up human being and the clear message sent by my name is that I'm not a big fan of my father and so I took my mother's name." She added that Van Dyne's "arc in the movie is trying to find a relationship" with Pym, which in turn brings Hope closer to becoming a hero. Kevin Feige noted that Van Dyne was the more obvious choice to take up the mantle of Ant-Man, being "infinitely more capable of actually being a superhero" than Lang, and that the reason she does not is because Pym is afraid of losing her, rather than sexism. Despite this, at the end of the film during a mid-credits scene, Van Dyne is offered a prototype for a new suit from her father.Lilly reprised her role and made her debut as the Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp. In the film, Van Dyne takes on the mantle to help find her mother who is presumed lost in the Quantum Realm. The writers were excited to properly introduce the character as the Wasp, showing her "power set, how she fights, and what are the injustices that matter to her". Lilly felt the character had "incredible satisfaction" in becoming the Wasp, "something that she has been waiting for her whole life" noting that it "is essentially an affirmation from her father". Her relationship with Lang in the film is complex as she is upset about his involvement in the Avengers Civil War believing that if he had asked her to join him fighting alongside Steve Rogers and his allies, he wouldn't have been caught. With her fight sequences, Lilly stated that she wanted to move away from masculine styles of fighting such as Muay Thai and the mixed martial arts she learned for the first film, noting that Van Dyne moves differently than a man, so her fights should have "elegance, grace and femininity" with "a signature style" young girls could enjoy and emulate. Lilly worked with the writers to help ensure Van Dyne represented a modern woman without becoming a stereotyped motherly figure. Additionally, American actress Madeleine McGraw portrayed a younger version of Van Dyne in the film.
In late 2016, two new Avengers films were announced for 2018 and 2019. Lilly confirmed that Van Dyne would appear in the second film in order to preserve her debut in the titular Ant-Man and the Wasp. In Avengers: Endgame, Van Dyne was brought by Doctor Strange to fight alongside the Avengers in the Battle of Earth. In 2021, Lilly voiced an alternate version of Van Dyne in season one of the animated series What If...?, appearing in the episode "What If... Zombies?!" where she rescues Janet who brings back a quantum zombie virus which infects the United States and eventually the world; Van Dyne is later infected and turns into a zombie. This storyline was further explored in the adult animated series Marvel Zombies which also featured zombie Van Dyne. In another episode, "What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?", it is revealed that Van Dyne was recruited as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent by Nick Fury but killed in Odessa, Ukraine causing her father to murder potential members of Fury's Avengers Initiative in revenge.
Lilly reprised her role in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Lilly noted that she was excited to "show a side of where she would make mistakes, she would be fragile, and she wouldn't always have the right answer". In the film, Van Dyne is in a good place having healed her relationship with her father, succeeded in saving her mother, fallen in love with Scott and is now a mother figure to his daughter Cassie Lang. She sees Cassie "as a little girl who needs coddling or protecting". Contrastingly, her relationship with her own mother at the beginning of the film is the polar opposite where Janet tires to protect Van Dyne by not letting her in. After the film's release, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lilly noted that Hope did not change much in the movie adding that "there wasn't somewhere needed to get to or go other than just to repair a little wound in her relationship with her mom".
In December 2023, Van Dyne appeared in two episodes of What If...? season two. A younger version of Van Dyne, voiced by McGraw, appeared in "What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?" acting as "Hank's conscience" as he assists S.H.I.E.L.D. in taking in a powered Peter Quill. Van Dyne also made a non-speaking appearance in "What If... Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?" where she follows Captain Carter's lead as a founding member of the Avengers. Head writer, A. C. Bradley, noted that "Since Peggy Carter wasn't around to found S.H.I.E.L.D., that responsibility fell to Hope's parents, Hank and Janet All this to Hope taking on the Wasp mantle earlier". In 2024, Lilly announced that she was "stepping away" from acting. Screen Rant writer Ross Tanenbaum later opined that her retirement leaves Van Dyne's MCU future in question but also noted that in the multiverse anyone can be "recast". Van Dyne's company, the Pym van Dyne Foundation, appeared on billboards in Times Square during Mayor Wilson Fisk's electoral speech in Daredevil: Born Again.