A major star of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films has revealed she has been diagnosed with ‘brain damage’ after suffering a terrible injury.
Evangeline Lilly, 46, who played Hope Van Dyne (the Wasp) in the MCU’s Ant Man and the Wasp series, took to Instagram on Thursday evening to give fans an update.
The actress is also known for playing Kate Austen in all six seasons of the 2000s TV phenomenon Lost, which was primarily filmed in Hawaii during its run.
And it was during a return trip to Hawaii in 2025 that Evangeline suddenly fainted and fell head first into a boulder, leaving her with bruises and scars across her face.
Sadly, it appears the physical injuries she suffered weren’t the only issues caused by the traumatic event – it left her concussed has now apparently left her with ‘brain damage’.
Evangeline said in a video on Instagram: ‘It’s late on January 1st. The first day of 2026. I’m entering into this new year, the year of the horse, with some bad news about my concussion.
‘A lot of you have asked how I’m doing. A lot of you have enquired about the brain scan that you heard I got. The results came back from the scan, and almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity.’
She continued: ‘I do have brain damage from the TBI (traumatic brain injury) and possibly other factors going on. My job now is to get to the bottom of that with my doctors.
‘Then I’ll embark on the hard work of fixing it, which I’m not looking forward to – I feel like hard work is all I do. But that’s okay. My cognitive decline is because I smashed my face open [but] it’s helped me to slow down.’
She concluded: ‘It’s taught me to have a more restful finish to my 2025. I think this was the most restful Christmas holiday I’ve had, maybe, since I’ve had children. So, 14 years ago – that’s a good thing.
‘I’m still feeling extraordinarily grateful and blessed to be able to play for one more day, one more year on this beautiful living planet. So, that is my concussion update. Thank you all for caring.’
In May 2025, Evangeline revealed that she had ‘blacked out’ suddenly in Hawaii, sharing pictures of bad scarring on her face from the fall – particularly around her nose and mouth.
In the aftermath, the Hobbit actress had to pull out of several media appearances and confessed that she had experienced fainting spells since childhood.
The Canadian actress shot to fame as main character Kate Austen on the American TV show Lost, which ran between 2004 and 2010, and earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
Before starring in four MCU films as the Wasp, she also appeared as the elf Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of Five Armies from the Hobbit trilogy.
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