That same year, Lilly had a leading role in the psychological thriller film Afterwards. On 11 May 2010, Lilly announced on The View that being a mother was her top priority, but that she liked acting as a "day job" and would continue it when possible. She took a short hiatus that year and was not in contact with Hollywood. In 2011, despite turning down a number of film offers, Lilly appeared as Bailey Tallet, a boxing gym owner, in Real Steel alongside Hugh Jackman. She accepted the role after director Shawn Levy sent her the script. Levy noted that Lilly was "magnificent to look" and that he "needed someone who you believed had grown up in a man's world; Bailey needed to have a strength and a toughness that was not at the expense of her being womanly". During promotion for the film, Lilly turned down a role in the X-Men franchise from Jackman, noting that she "wasn't into superhero movies" at the time. The film went on to be nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 84th Academy Awards. In 2012, Lilly was cast as the Mirkwood elf Tauriel in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. The character, which does not appear in the original book by Tolkien, was created by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh as the head of the Elven guard. For the role, Lilly underwent training for swordplay, archery and speaking the Elvish language. Lilly described Tauriel as a nonconformist, noting that she tends to "rebel against the established social order of the Elves". Lilly appeared as the character in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and its sequel, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). In 2015, Lilly played Hope van Dyne, daughter of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne in the superhero film Ant-Man. Lilly described her character as "capable, strong, and kick-ass", but said that being raised by two superheroes resulted in Hope being "a pretty screwed up human being [...] and the clear message sent by my name is that I'm not a big fan of my father and so I took my mother's name." Lilly also signed a multi-film contract with Marvel. The film received generally positive reviews. In 2017, Lilly starred in the Netflix horror film, Little Evil alongside Adam Scott. In 2018, she reprised her role as van Dyne in