In November of last year, legendary comic book creator Stan Lee passed away, though not before filming a few more of his patented cameo. Last month’s Captain Marvel, for instance, featured an unusually meta take on the tradition, as the writer appeared as himself reading for his part in Mallrats. But in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame, it looks like Lee is finally bringing his run of cameos to a close.
Co-director Joe Russo hinted as such while attending a fan event in India earlier this month, and in a recent interview with ComicBook.com, the filmmaker confirmed that Endgame will serve as Lee’s last cinematic outing.
“This was his final cameo that was committed to film,” Russo said. “It was always… Again, I grew up as a Marvel fanatic, and watching Spider-Man cartoon show as a kid with his voice in it. I think anything that affects you as a child, really affects you as an adult, sticks with you. So when he would come on set, and we’d hear his voice, it’s sort of Pavlovian in a way, where you just become a child again. The whole crew would be like that. People were always… All these movie stars on set every day, and then Stan would show up, and it was just like people were kids all over again.”
Though there was previously speculation that Lee might make an appearance later this year in Spider-Man: Far From Home, it seems that the tradition ends with this month’s Avengers: Infinity War sequel. That being said, while the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix won’t have a cameo from Lee, director Simon Kinberg has said that the film will contain some kind of tribute to the man. And seeing how the wall-crawler is arguably Lee’s most famous creation, it wouldn’t be surprising if the next Spider-Man solo movie also found a way of referencing the late legend.
Regardless, as the culmination point for over a decade of superhero cinema, Avengers: Endgame seems like about as perfect a place as any for Lee’s final big screen appearance. As it stands, the details of his cameo are being kept under wraps (as producer Kevin Feige told Variety last year, “Stan always appreciated a good surprise.”), but all will be revealed when the film hits theaters on April 26th.