Spoilers ahead for Lost and Avengers: Infinity War.
Evangeline Lilly finally gets a superhero costume and a headlining role in this summer's Ant-Man and the Wasp. And following her debut as The Wasp, Hope van Dyne will be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe mega-event film Avengers 4. But before she donned her Wasp suit or even fought beside dwarves and wizards in The Hobbit films, she starred on the television-altering series Lost. That show's impact and influence on television cannot be understated, and it turns out that Evangeline Lilly actually sees some parallels between Lost and Avengers 4. She compared the seminal show with what will probably be the biggest movie ever, saying:
You want me to tell you about the flash-forwards and flashbacks and flash-sideways? When I heard about Infinity War and the direction that they're heading, I did have this moment of realizing, oh, wow, there's a bit of a déjà vu for me with the Lost franchise. We are hitting that [Lost] Season 4 space where everything's about to shift, and you're about to lose the solid ground underneath you. And [Ant-Man and the Wasp], of course, will play a part in that.
To say there is a lot that we can read into this is an understatement, but let's try to unpack these comments. If we interpret these comments at their most basic level, they can be taken as a metaphorical comparison reflecting how, like Lost, Avengers 4 will represents a huge shift in the narrative. Therefore, things are headed in a new and wild direction.
Evangeline Lilly specifically told Vanity Fair that there was a bit of déjà vu for her with Avengers 4 that reminded her of Lost season 4, which is the season when the show really kicked into overdrive. Up until season 4, Lost was a show about people stranded on an island. Some weird stuff happened for sure, but the show was still somewhat grounded. When Season 4 hit and the creators had an endgame in mind, Lost really embraced the weird science fiction elements with flash-forwards and the introduction of time travel. So Evangeline Lilly's comparison could really be a 'you ain't seen nothing yet' sort of sentiment.
If we look at the latter half of Lost as a whole and the recent things we've learned about Avengers 4, the comments become even more intriguing. Thanks to some leaked set photos and social media clues, it seems that Avengers 4 will be revisiting the Battle of New York, the 1940's, and some other events in MCU history. These could be flashbacks, or through the use of time travel. But given that these events will offer more than originally depicted, another possibility is raised that echoes Lost.
The end of Avengers: Infinity War saw half the universe's population wiped out, along with many of our heroes. It stands to reason that the surviving heroes will still be trying to reverse Thanos' snap and set things right again, but how they do that is the question. The most obvious way is time travel. But without Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamotto, how will this happen? One possibility is that some sort of playing around in the Quantum Realm by Ant-Man and the Wasp may introduce new elements like time travel and multiple timelines.
Lost played with time travel and alternate timelines in its latter seasons, and did some very fascinating things with its rules and how it affected the overall narrative. Lost contained times where time was skipping like a record, the characters revisited moments from their past on the island, and the flash-sideways showed what the characters' lives would have been like had the plane never crashed. So maybe Avengers 4 will be doing something similar and having the heroes go back in time and revisiting certain events and heroes.
If the Avengers go back in time looking for a way to defeat Thanos or change what happened, they run the risk of messing with things. It seems that Avengers 4 may pick up years later, not dissimilar to the flash-forwards on Lost. It is possible that in going back to try and save everyone, they will create multiple timelines and be forced to choose between saving everyone, and losing what they have gained in the years since the battle with Thanos. This would set up a brutal and emotional sacrifice, not unlike Lost.
On Lost the rule was 'whatever happened, happened' and could not be changed. That is, until it could, resulting in lasting and tragic consequences. I'm not sure what Avengers 4 is going to do, but it seems that this movie will be quite different than its predecessor. Now we just have to see if the seeds for some Lost-like craziness are planted in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Avengers 4 hits theaters on May 3, 2019. Before then you can see what Quantum Realm shenanigans may play a role in that film when Ant-Man and the Wasp hits theaters on July 6th.
