Guardians Of The Galaxy Director Reveals Original Stan Lee Cameo Idea That Disney Wouldn’t Allow

While Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has had nothing but praise about how flexible Marvel Studios and Disney were in things that he wanted to do in the film, it turns out that there was one particular scene that Disney did veto.

During a panel at this weekend’s Dragon Con (via Collider), James Gunn relayed a story about the original idea he had for Marvel legend Stan Lee’s cameo. Gunn originally planned for Lee to be one of the Collector’s exhibits, just like Howard the Duck.

In the scene Gunn had planned, Groot would have looked at Lee in the exhibit and been taken aghast. Then, Lee would have flipped Groot the bird. Evidently, Disney was not ok with Lee flipping the bird, even though Chris Pratt did it as Star-Lord in the film.

Instead of being part of the Collector’s exhibit, Stan Lee wound up being one of the people on the planet Xandar, who Rocket spots talking to a woman much younger than him.