Marvel and Lost actor Evangeline Lilly reveals ‘brain damage’ after major accident

She shared the news on social media

The Ant-Man, Lost and The Hobbit star shared the news as she issued a health update to fans on social media this week.

It comes after Lilly suffered an accident in May 2025 in Hawaii during which she fainted and hit her head on a boulder, leaving her with bruises and cuts to her face.

Taking to Instagram, the 46-year-old Canadian said: "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 inquired 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.”

Lilly 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 OK. My cognitive decline is because I smashed my face open [but] it’s helped me to slow down.”

She added: "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.”

Lilly shared details of her accident last year on Substack with photos of her face.

She had stitches between her nose and her lip, and some more on her chin.

She wrote at the time: "I fainted at the beach. And fell face first into a boulder.

“At the hospital, the nurses and doctor went straight into action, more determined to find the cause of my blackout than to stitch up the hole punctured into my face by the rock. I smiled wryly at them. ‘You won’t find anything.’ I said with a woozy voice.”

She went on to explain how she used to faint occasionally as a child and was diagnosed with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

However, she noted that later in her life when she had blood taken she never seemed to have low blood sugar levels.

She wrote: "But, as I got older, and other health issues started to enter the picture, my doctor started doing a LOT of blood work.

"What was interesting was how, even after a 12-hour fast, even after blacking out, my glucose levels never came back as low. Hypoglycemia, it seemed, was being ruled out.”

The actor played Kate Austen in all six seasons of the series Lost, starred as Tauriel in all The Hobbit films and played the Wasp in the Ant-Man films.