Yesterday, we lost a legend.
Stan Lee passed away at age 95, leaving behind a legacy that has inspired millions and millions
of fans across the globe.
Aside from his work at Marvel comics, Stan made sure to appear in the adaptations of
the comic giant’s greatest works, having made cameos in almost all of the Marvel live
action films, and even some of the animated ones and video games, too.
Lucky for us, Stan thought ahead; before he passed away, he made sure to film cameos for
5 more Marvel Cinematic Universe films, including Avengers 4 and Captain Marvel, so we won’t
be without one of our favourite easter eggs that fans adore in that franchise.
So today, in honor of Stan, we’re counting down our favourite top 10 Stan Lee Cameos.
Let’s get to it.
10 Hulk Lee started doing cameos in the Marvel adaptations
with an appearance in the television show The Incredible Hulk back in the 80s that starred
Lou Ferrigno.
So when the 2003 Hulk film came out, director Ang Lee figured he’d capitalize on that
history and pop Stan Lee and Ferrigno in a quick scene together.
Stan plays a security guard, whose exiting a building with a much more jacked up security
guard, played by Ferrigno.
It’s a quick moment, but you can hear Lee ranting to Ferrigno, saying “as far as I’m
concerned, security wouldn’t be beefed up a lot more in a place like this…”
9 Deadpool While Stan didn’t make a live action cameo
in the sequel Deadpool film (he only appears as graffiti on a building), he did make a
pretty hilarious one in the first movie.
Deadpool, which was Marvel’s first R rated film, placed Lee as a DJ in a strip club.
Lee even has a hilarious line, shouting into a microphone “Give it up for Chastity!”
whose one of the dancers in the club.
Unexpected, ridiculous and so enjoyable, it’s become a fan favourite cameo from Marvel and
movie goer fans alike.
8 Captain America Civil War At the end of Civil War, as Tony Stark and
Rhodey have a moment of reflection, Stan pops up as a Fed Ex delivery man in search of Stark.
He enters and declares that he’s got a package for a Tony Stank.
Rhodey gets one hell of a kick out of this, responding, yes this is Tony Stank, you’re
in the right place, and that he’ll never let Tony live that one down.
It’s a brief moment, but oh so enjoyable.
7 Captain American: The Winter Soldier “Oh man, I am so fired.”
That’s the hilarious line that Stan utters in Winter Soldier, playing a security guard
at the Smithsonian who has just released that Captain America’s uniform, which was on
display at the museum, has been stolen.
Little does he know that it’s Cap whose behind it, taking in so that he can go take
down Hydra after discovering that they’ve infiltrated SHIELD.
6 The Spider-Man Games While Stan’s cameos in the films have always
been enjoyable for movie-goers, his cameos in some of the Marvel video games can be even
more satisfying at times.
In the Amazing Spider-Man game that came out in 2012 for PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii U, there
was a mode in the game that allowed you to play as Stan Lee, with all of Spidey’s powers.
It was a DLC, and it was amazing.
You could swing around the city as Stan in a suit, and he had a ton of lines he’d say
while he was doing it, including the likes of “I’m definitely gonna tweet about this”
and “I really am hero material!” to name a few.
And, he recently also appeared in the new PS4 Spider-Man game, too, as the owner of
a restaurant that Peter Parker and Mary Jane frequent.
5 Thor Ragnarok In one of Lee’s more adorable cameos, here
we have him in Thor’s third movie, Ragnarok.
After Thor is picked up on Sakaar and captured by the Grandmaster’s goons, he’s strapped
to a chair as part of preparation to turn him into one of the Grandmaster’s gladiators.
Which means a hair cut for Thor.
And whose the barber in charge of chopping off all of the Asgardian’s golden locks?
Stan Lee.
Plus his hair cutting tool is absolutely terrifying, as you can see based on Thor’s reaction,
too.
According to director Taika Waititi, he wanted Lee’s appearance to be both a funny cameo
and a disarming reminder about the ravages of time.
4 Avengers Age of Ultron In Age of Ultron, one of the fan favourite
scenes features a party in which all of the Avengers are in attendance.
By the end of the night, every one has gotten their drink on, including one of the WW2 veterans
in attendance, who is played by none other than Stan Lee.
After Thor teases him about OdinBooze, and how it’s too strong for mortals, so Lee
responds saying “Neither was Omaha Beach, blondie.
Stop trying to scare us.”
Later on, we see him being gently escorted out of the party, quite drunk, saying his
famous catchphrase, “Excelsior.”
3 Spider-Man 3 Often, Lee’s cameos aren’t just for humour.
Sometimes, he comes as a means of a moral reminder to our heroes on screen.
This is the case in 2007’s Spider-Man 3.
While the film itself was questionable at best, Lee’s cameo resonated with a lot of
people, and has become one of his more quotable lines, since.
He turns to Toby McGuire’s Peter Parker and says, “You know, I guess one person
CAN make a difference.
Nuff said.”
It also really affects Parker, and sums up much of the comic book character’s own personal
conflict that he’s struggled with over the years, thanks to some excellent writing courtesy
of Lee himself.
2 The Amazing Spider-Man One of the most complicated shots that Stan
has cameoed in comes from The Amazing Spider-Man, the film that starred Andrew Garfield as Peter
Parker prior to the Spider-Man MCU revamp.
This one has Stan standing in the foreground of one of the movie’s major fight scenes,
with headphones on his ears, completely oblivious to what’s going on behind him in the library.
We hear the classical music he’s listening to as he almost gets knocked out by a table
that Spidey pulls back with one of his webs.
Stan then picks up a brown paper bag and heads out of the library just as Spider-Man is thrown
past him by the door.
1 The Watcher In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, there’s
a moment where Yondu, Rocket and Groot flung through the galaxy in a pretty hilarious sequence.
During the sequence, director James Gunn cuts to a quick moment of calmness as their ship
swoops by a barren planet.
On that planet, we see a group of Watchers, all sitting around Stan Lee in an astronaut
suit, saying “Aw man.
Anyway before I was so rudely interrupted, that time, I was a federal express man.”
This spawned one of the biggest MCU fan theories out there; that Stan Lee is actually a Watcher,
more specifically, the one sanctioned to this quadrant of the galaxy, Uatu the Watcher.
Meaning that in all of his cameos in the MCU, he’s there as a Watcher, taking it in.
And that the Federal Express man line is a nod to his cameo in Captain America Winter
Solider where he shows up as a Fed Ex delivery guy.
But similar to Uatu, who is known for sometimes meddling in small ways, Lee often interjects
and interacts ever so briefly with our heroes on screen.
Marvel Studios has even nodded at the theory, stating that Lee exists, I quote, “above
and apart from the reality of all the films.”
There we have it friends!
Which was your favourite Stan Lee cameo?
What other ones should we have included on our list?
And what was your favourite Stan Lee moment in general?
Tell us all of your thoughts in those comments below.
In the meantime, thanks for watching everyone.
Catch you all in the next one.