Stan Lee’s Cameo In ‘The Gifted’ Premiere Revealed

Fox’s new X-Men television series The Gifted premiered tonight with the pilot episode titled “Exposed,” and it wouldn’t be a Marvel production without a cameo by X-Men co-creator Stan Lee.

Lee did not disappoint, though his cameo was one of his smaller roles compared to some of his other appearances. Lee’s cameo occurs when Eclipse (Sean Teale) is going to meet Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer). Eclipse heads for the agreed upon meeting place, a bar called Tex’s Loung (the “T” and the “E” on the neon sign just happen to be out, so that it looks like it reads “X’s Lounge.”)

As Eclipse goes to the front door of the establishment, he just happens to bump into an older gentleman on his way out, and that older gentleman just happens to be Stan “The Man” Lee.

In an interview on the set of The Gifted in Atlanta, actor Coby Bell, who plays Sentinel Services agent Jace Turner, told ComicBook.com that Lee’s cameo was not planned ahead of time. Lee just happened to be in Dallas, where the pilot episode of The Gifted was filmed.

“The Stan Lee thing was just luck,” Bell said. “He happened to be in Dallas. [Executive Producer Matt Nix and Producer Derek Hoffman] went to where he was and were like, ‘Hey man, we’re doing an X-Men TV show. Will you come and pop in? It happened in like a day…And he was like, ‘Sure!’ and he just came by and did it.”

That’s a lucky turn for X-Men and Marvel fans, and Bell assured ComicBook.com that there would be more Marvel references in The Gifted going forward.

“They’re doing a lot of cool stuff that I think the audience won’t even realize until season two or season three if we can get that far that they’re planting right now,” Bell said.

One of the deeper cuts that The Gifted is already drawing on from the Marvel Comics Universe the Roderick Campbell, also known as the mutant-hunting villain Ahab. Campbell will make his first appearance, played by Garret Dillahunt, in next week’s episode of The Gifted.

The Gifted airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.