Evangeline Lilly revealed on social media that she has brain damage after suffering a concussion after falling on a rock last year. The “Lost” and “Ant-Man” star said that “almost every area of my brain is dysfunctional.”
“I’m going into a new year, the Year of the Horse, with some bad news about concussions,” the Marvel actor said in an Instagram video. “Many of you asked how I was doing. Many of you asked about the brain scans you heard I had undergone. And the results that came back from the scans showed that almost every area of my brain was functioning poorly.”
“But now my job is to work with the doctors to get to the bottom of the problem and start the hard work of curing it. I’m not looking forward to it, because I think all I have to do is work hard,” Lily added. “But I’m fine. The cognitive decline I’ve experienced since getting hit in the face has slowed me down and allowed me to finish 2025 more peacefully.”
Lily wrote in the caption of her post, “The verdict is in…I have brain damage due to (traumatic brain injury). It’s comforting to know that my cognitive decline is not limited to perimenopause, and it’s disturbing to know what an uphill battle it will be to reverse cognitive decline. Thank you for always asking, for always caring, and for keeping me in your prayers.”
Lily played Kate Bishop on all six seasons of Lost, which aired from 2004 to 2010. For her performance, Lily was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series. She is also best known for playing Hope Van Dyne/The Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, first appearing in 2015’s Ant-Man and reprising her role in 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, and 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Lily also played Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy and appeared in two later films, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies.
In a social media post last June, Lily revealed that she would be stepping away from acting for the time being, writing, “It can sometimes feel scary to walk away from what seems like the obvious choice (wealth and fame), but as I step into my dharma, fear turns to fulfillment. I may return to Hollywood one day, but for now, this is where I belong.”
In a statement to Variety at the time, Lily added: “In fact, I’ve already been on hiatus from acting for the past three years (after finishing Quantumia). This time outside of work has brought me a sense of grounding, fulfillment and joy. I can’t come back tomorrow, I can’t come back in two years, I can’t come back again, but I’m not actively working in this industry at this point, and I’m not contractually obligated to anyone, and I’m devoting my time to humanitarian work and my writing. ”
