The Post-'Avengers 4' MCU Is A Lot Like 'Lost', According To Evangeline Lilly

Ant-Man and Avengers: Infinity War co-star Evangeline Lilly is currently filming the still-untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel Avengers 4, and the actress has shed some light on the future of the MCU. As it turns out, the different direction the MCU is headed towards in the post-Avengers 4 era is a lot like Lilly's old TV series Lost. Could this mean the MCU characters are going to wake up in a church somewhere in purgatory? No, probably not. To learn just how the MCU post-Avengers 4 is like Lost, keep reading.

The MCU is nearing a seismic shift. Avengers: Infinity War, a culmination of everything the MCU has done so far, will soon smash its way into theaters. After that, the "end" of the MCU as we know it will arrive in the form of Avengers 4. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed as much in a recent Vanity Fair interview all about the MCU, saying Avengers 4 "bring things you've never seen in superhero films: a finale. There will be two distinct periods. Everything before Avengers 4 and everything after." This sounds like a completely different move for the MCU, but Avengers 4 co-star Evangeline Lilly has seen something like this before. In the same Vanity Fair interview, she equates the strange new direction the MCU is headed in with her time on the hit TV series Lost:

"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."

Lilly also adds that the films, like Lost, will have the potential to "flash-forwards and flashbacks and flash-sideways." The actress is echoing a statement from Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger, who said:

"[W]e're looking for worlds that are completely separate from the worlds we've already visited. They can be separate geographically, or separate in time—not just in place but in time. So there's almost, it's not quite infinite, but the directions we could go are extraordinary."

This is likely all tied into the Quantum Realm, a Marvel alternate dimension accessible through magical energy, mystical transportation, or by the shrinking caused by the Pym Particles, which were revealed in Ant-Man. Lilly goes on to say that we'll be seeing more of the Quantum Realm in the upcoming Ant-Man sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp:

"[Ant-Man's] characters are experts in the quantum realm. In 'Ant-Man and the Wasp,' they are trying everything in their power to safely enter the quantum realm and return back from it because they have evidence from the first film that Scott Lang was able to do that. If he can do it, why can't we? If we do succeed in 'Ant-Man and the Wasp,' then that does open a whole entire new multi-verse to enter into and play around in. I'm not the story creator, so I can't tell you what they're going to do with that. But I definitely see the potential there."

Honestly, none of this sounds like Lost at all. But what Lilly is getting at here is that like the hit ABC series that ran for six seasons between 2004 and 2010, the possibilities to go off into strange, unexpected, surprising directions are limitless. Just as long as the Smoke Monster doesn't show up.

Avengers 4 will end the MCU as we know it on May 3, 2019.