Stan Lee Had Already Filmed An ‘Avengers 4’ Cameo Before His Death
Although he was one of the essential creative forces during the glory years of Marvel Comics, and he remained busy as a writer and creator well into his 90s, by the time Stan Lee passed away this week at the age of 95, he was best known among younger fans as the gregarious public face of Marvel — and as the man who made cameos in all of their movies. The Wikipedia page about Stan’s cameos is longer than any Marvel Comic ever published.
The cameos started with the first live-action X-Men and continued right on through the most recent Marvel releases, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Venom (even though Stan didn’t have a hand in creating Venom).
Stan even started making cameos in non-Marvel movies in recent years. You might have caught him earlier this summer in a very fun bit in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies:
With Lee’s passing, Marvel movies will never be the same. But Marvel also had a habit of stockpiling Stan cameos; he’d come to the set for a day or two and bang out several of them at once to cut down on his travel.
Given what’s in production right now, we could still see several more Stan Lee cameos in the next several years. Don’t be surprised (although Marvel hasn’t confirmed them) if he shows up in next year’s Captain Marvel or Spider-Man: Far From Home). He definitely will be in Avengers 4 (which would make a fitting farewell, all things considered). Co-director Joe Russo confirmed Stan’s cameo in Avengers 4 was shot together with his Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp cameos to the BBC (via CBR):
So, Stan, typically we try to get him out — he doesn't love to fly — so we try to get him out for his cameos around the same time. So if we have other movies shooting on the same lot that we're on, for instance Ant-Man 2 or Avengers 4, we group his cameos together and then move him from one set to the next and kind of get him through his cameos in one day.
We are not emotionally prepared for the first MCU movie without Stan in it. That’s going to be a sad day.
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