Actor Evangeline Lilly, best known for playing Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has slammed Marvel’s parent company, Disney, for the recent layoffs in the production house, which resulted in many technicians working on MCU projects losing their jobs. In an impassioned video message, Evangelline slammed Disney and accused them of ‘turning your back on the people who built your power’.
Evangeline Lilly blasts Disney
On Thursday, the 46-year-old actor shared a video on her Instagram account in which she addressed the recent layoffs in Marvel Studios. “I reached out to my good friend Andy Park, who was the genius behind creating the original Wasp super-suit and concept drawings, and I said, ‘Is this true? Is this really what’s happening?’ He said, ‘Yeah, it’s true.’ I can’t quite believe that Disney has let go of the artists who brought the Marvel Universe to life through their genius, and that the people who invented these characters and who designed them are being replaced by AI. AI that will take their designs and take what they created and use it to create iterations of that. I am so sorry, Andy. I am so sorry to every one of the artists who were let go.”
Lilly’s comments came after hundreds of artists, VFX technicians, and other crew members from Marvel films were let go. Reports claimed the mass firing could be linked to a larger Disney pivot to AI.
In her caption, the Ant-Man star was even more scathing. “Disney, SHAME ON YOU for turning your back on the people who built the power you are now using to throw them away,” she wrote, praising Marvel’s artists “who designed and brought to life the glory days of Marvel… I was there. I know what you did. I know how passionately you worked round the clock to make magic happen. You are the magicians, no matter what the Wizards of our new Oz make it look like going forward. I will never forget.”
The Canadian actor then urged California legislators to intervene. “Where are the laws that REMOVE all human art from the AI bank?!?” she asked. “Why do they get to steal our brilliance and use it to make executives rich while the artists responsible for feeding their robots go hungry?? Disgusting. California lawmakers…where are you?!?!?”
Evangeline Lilly’s acting career
Evangeline Lilly first gained prominence as Kate Austen in the hit drama Lost. She was part of the show’s leading cast from 2004 to 2010. After that, she appeared in films like The Hurt Locker, Real Steel, and The Hobbit Trilogy. But it was as Hope van Dyne, aka Wasp, in Marvel films that she found mainstream success. She has appeared as the character in three Ant-Man films as well as Avengers: Endgame.