The mysteriousness of Stan Lee’s Marvel movie cameos — where he can be a humble Earth bus driver, a Xandarian citizen taking in the sights, or a deep-space astronaut spinning yarns to a rapt gaggle of Watchers — is a frequent source of fan delight and speculation. Is he an immortal? A cosmic force? A Watcher?
But Lee’s posthumous cameo in Captain Marvel raises questions of equal magnitude all on its own. The appearance gives the late comic book titan a role he has never before taken up in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, and it’s a perfect nod to the film’s ’90s setting.
Excuse us if we go galaxy brain.
BUT FIRST, SOME VITAL DETAILS
Captain Marvel is the first MCU movie to hit theaters since Lee’s death at the age of 95 — and Marvel Studios marked the occasion with a new title card logo and animation, replacing the usual images of Marvel heroes with clips of the writer in his Marvel Universe cameos.
But Lee’s cameo in Captain Marvel is not his first posthumous cameo in a Marvel movie. He voiced a quite moving cameo in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which hit theaters on Dec. 14, 2018.
And Captain Marvel won’t be his final posthumous cameo, either. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed on the red carpet of Captain Marvel’s Los Angeles premiere that Lee completed filming on one more Marvel Studios film before his death — likely this April’s highly anticipated Avengers: Endgame.
Now, on to the Captain Marvel cameo itself.
