With every single franchise under the sun being either rebooted or remade in some fashion, one can’t help but wonder if there is a producer, network, or studio executive with a scruffy beard standing outside LAX screaming “We have to go back!”
ABC’s Lost signed off on May 23, 2010 after six seasons of mythology that had fans obsessed (and, yes, sometimes frustrated) looking for answers to the mystery — and for some, the mystery of life. With such a devoted fanbase, the show would seem a natural to get a continuation or reimagining.
So when star Evangeline Lilly stopped by SiriusXM studios to chat for the upcoming EW Live show (launching Monday on Stars channel 109 from 2-4 p.m. ET) to talk about her latest delightfully demented children’s book The Squickerwonkers: The Demise of Selma the Spoiled, we asked the former Kate Austen whether she thought the island drama would be remade or rebooted anytime soon, and the actress did not hold back.
“My honest answer is I hope not,” says Lilly. “I really am that person who felt like we could have left well enough alone with a lot of these franchises, and I am die-hard fan of the original Star Wars movies, you know, and sometimes I think you can devalue the original content. I think that can happen, and I would hate to see that happen with Lost. I read a quote recently that said, I’ve never done an adaptation because the book is good enough as it is.”
Leave it to the refreshingly candid Lilly to pump the breaks on remake-mania. Lilly’s comments follow EP Damon Lindelof’s 2017 take on a possible Lost reboot. “Those characters not only died, but we showed you their experience post-death,” Lindelof told EW then. “Any new take on Lost will probably have to feature new characters, as it should.”
Lindelof also felt they had already told the story they wanted to tell the first time. “As it relates to Lost, which was so heavily serialized, I do think it’s somewhat of a betrayal to go back in and say there’s more story to tell that I just came up with now, especially when we had ample time to end it on our own terms,” he said.
But the EP was not against someone else taking a stab at the material: “[Executive producer] Carlton [Cuse] and I always said that we welcome any future crack at the [intellectual property]. Lost was bigger than us and bigger than [co-creator] J.J. [Abrams]. There’s something really exciting about the fact that George Lucas sold the Star Wars universe and now the people who grew up watching it are making it. Maybe the same thing could be said for Lost.”
To hear the entire interview with Evangeline Lilly — including her thoughts on playing the Wasp in Avengers: Endgame, check out the new EW Live on channel 109, weekdays at 2 p.m.
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