How Evangeline Lilly's decision to shave her head led to her new look in 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'

Save for maybe Chris Hemsworth’s surprising trim for 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, few Marvel actors have had their hairstyles as scrutinized as Evangeline Lilly.

Leading up to 2015’s Ant-Man, Lilly made headlines for her “very Waspy” layered bob before it was even confirmed that her character, Hope van Dyne, would inherit the Wasp mantle from her mother, Janet. Lilly drew praise again for wearing her longer hair in a ponytail on 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, with admirers pointing out the pragmatism of the look as opposed to other action heroines (i.e., Wonder Woman) who wear their hair down in the thick of battle.

And while Lilly’s decision to shave her head in 2019 was not at all Ant-Man- or Wasp-related, it ultimately teed up yet another new ’do for the 43-year-old Lost alum in this week’s threequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

She goes full pixie this time.

“It was kind of a convergence of circumstances,” Lilly explains in a new interview with Yahoo Entertainment. “About four years ago I shaved my head, just for fun. And I had then grown it out into a pixie, and I was living like this, except it was blond.

“So when the film came up, like we were going to be doing it, the question was, ‘Do I put a wig on, and match the previous film or do something different? Or do we just go with what I have and just dye it dark?’ And I always like to take inspiration from the comic books. I did in the first film. The original Hope Van Dyke haircut was a call to the comic book Janet Van Dyne haircut. And I just liked the idea of doing another callback to the original Wasp in the comics. And she often had a little short, dark pixie cut, so we went for it.”

If you think Lilly’s autonomy when it came to Hope’s hair might have been challenged by Marvel — a studio famous for its immaculate attention to every single detail – you’d be surprised.

“You would think it would go through more [approvals], but it felt more like, ‘Whatever you want to do with your hair,’” Lilly says.

“And I was like, ‘OK, cool, do you like this?’ I just showed them the comics.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens Feb. 17.

Watch the trailer: