Actress Evangeline Lilly is facing major backlash, including calls for her to be sacked by Marvel Studios, after she voiced her opposition to Covid-19 vaccine mandates.
The blowback began after Lilly, a star of Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man’ movies, said on Thursday that she had participated in a protest last weekend in Washington, DC to support “bodily sovereignty.” She argued in an Instagram post that “nobody should ever be forced to inject their body with anything, against their will.”
“This is not the way. This is not safe. This is not healthy. This is not love. I understand the world is in fear, but I don’t believe that answering fear with force will fix our problems,” Lilly said. “I was pro-choice before Covid, and I am still pro-choice today.”
Critics called for Lilly to be canceled from the Marvel franchise of superhero films, known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Richard Newby, a contributor to the Hollywood Reporter, said Lilly and another actress, Letitia Wright, are about to get themselves cast out of the MCU.
“Oh dear God, Wasp recast incoming,” one Twitter user said. Another observer called for removing her not only from the ‘Wasp’ franchise, but also from the ‘Lost’ television series. Lost ended more than a decade ago, and filming for ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ has reportedly wrapped up.
Wright was accused of sharing anti-vaccine views on the set of Marvel’s ‘Black Panther 2’ movie. Lilly, who’s starring in the upcoming Marvel film ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, previously caused outrage by comparing Covid-19 lockdowns to martial law in early 2020. She apologized that time, however.
Marvel is owned by Walt Disney Co., a unit of which fired anti-vaccine actress Gina Carano last year after she spoke out against mask-wearing and likened the current climate of political intolerance to Nazi Germany.