Evangeline Lilly is stepping away from acting

Evangeline Lilly is putting her wasp stingers on — at least for now.

the Ant-Man and the Wasp The star, 44, announced on Posted on Instagram on Monday She is “staying away” from Hollywood for the foreseeable future. Along with her post, Lily shared a 2006 video in which she shared her dreams for the future, which included becoming a “retired actress,” starting a family, and focusing on humanitarian work.

“I am full of joy and contentment today as I live my vision. Alhamdulillah, I feel so grateful for the blessings I am given,” Lily captioned the post. “Stepping away from what seems like an obvious choice (wealth and fame) can be scary sometimes, but stepping into your dharma replaces fear with accomplishment. I may return to Hollywood one day, but for now, this is where I belong.”

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She concluded: “A new season has arrived, and I am ready… and I am happy.”

After appearing in many TV shows including SmallvilleLily got her big break as Kate Austen in the sci-fi series Lost. She would go on to star opposite Hugh Jackman in the 2011 film The Mechanic Real steel Before taking a trip to Middle-earth to play the dwarf Tauriel in 2013 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug And its sequel in 2014, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies.

In 2015, she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Hope van Dyne in Peyton Reed’s film ant Man. She later reprized the superhero role in 2018 Ant-Man and the WaspFight in the final battle against Thanos in… Avengers: EndgameAnd back for more surprises in the quantum world in 2023 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Obsession.

Throughout her career, Lily has been open about turning down roles that didn’t interest her – including an instance in which she declined Hugh Jackman’s personal invitation to join the cast. X-Men The universe is in his face.

“I was like, ‘No. This doesn’t interest me. I’m not interested,'” she recalled on the TV show. Happy sad confused Podcast. “I was like, ‘I feel like an idiot because I’m talking to the X-Men!’ the X-Men! And I tell him: No, he doesn’t like it. like what?!’ I felt so rude!”

At the time, Lilly noted that she was “very critical” of superhero films and planned to reject them ant Man Before her agent encouraged her to watch some previous Marvel films. “When I did that, I thought, ‘Oh, they’re doing something so different and cool,'” she added.