Hope van Dyne was a key player last year in Ant-Man, but unlike Scott Lang, she never got to don her own shrinking costume. Fortunately, during the mid-credits scene, her father, Hank Pym, finally unveiled her very own Wasp costume. Hope will be suiting up in 2018 for Ant-Man and the Wasp, and the sequel will see her growing into that fully-formed superhero we’ve been waiting to see.
During the Captain America: Civil War red carpet premiere last night, Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed explained to EW how Hope’s role in the first movie will guide her into her new role as the Wasp and how she operates. He said:
Evangeline is an amazing actress. The first movie was really about her coming into her own as a hero, even though we didn’t see her suit up yet. So we’re so excited about now being able to show her fully formed and what she is as a superhero. Her power set, how she fights, and what are the injustices that matter to her that she wants to right. That’s part of the really fun thing of the next movie.
Throughout most of Ant-Man, Hope expressed frustration to Hank about why Scott was chosen to wear the Ant-Man suit over her, and he later revealed it was because her mother/his wife, Janet, was lost to the Quantum Realm while she was active as the Wasp. Following Yellowjacket’s defeat, Hank showed Hope the Wasp suit he and Janet had been working decades earlier, and he officially bequeathed it to his daughter. Her response was a simple but effective, “It’s about damn time.” Now when we see Ant-Man back in action following Captain America: Civil War, he’ll be working alongside the Wasp against their new, but still unrevealed, adversary, and if you know anything about Wasp in the comics, she packs way more of a sting.
As far as fighting goes, we already got a taste of Hope van Dyne style in Ant-Man, both when she was training Scott Lang and when she was fighting off HYDRA goons in Cross Technologies. Hope also mentioned that she should have been the one wearing the Ant-Man suit rather than Scott Lang, so she probably has some experience shrinking via the Pym Particles. Assuming Hope wanted to put on the Wasp costume asap and given the amount of time that will have passed between Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, she’ll presumably already have superhero experience under her belt, as opposed to the sequel showing her first mission. However, because she’s partners with Scott, it may take a little more time for them to get in sync with each other while taking on the bad guys.
Ant-Man and the Wasp hits theaters on July 6, 2018.
