Stan Lee never knew that Marvel Comics would become the entertainment juggernaut it is today.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In memory of Lee following his passing announced on Monday, ComicBook.com dug up an interview with the Marvel Comics genius conducted in 2015. At the time, Avengers: Age of Ultron was gearing up for release and Tom Holland was nearing the role of Spider-Man, though he hadn’t landed it quite yet. However, while Marvel Comics has spawned billion dollar franchises and changed so many lives, Lee never knew this would all grow to what it has.
“No, no, years ago when I was doing these comics, we’d give the comic books away free to people,” Lee said in the interview seen above. “The printer would send us a lot of comics, more than we needed. A guy would come up to deliver sandwiches from the drug store. We’d say, ‘On your way out, you want to take these books with you?’ We would even give out original art work, we never though it would be worth anything! It’s changed.”
One can only imagine how much those original pieces of art work would be valued at today.
With the big screen universe slowly bringing together the Marvel characters which had been sold to other studios, barring them from appearing in Avengers movies with Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and others, Lee was excited to get Spider-Man back into the mix. “Of course, the more we can get them all together like the Avengers, it’s fun,” Lee said, before bringing up the more important fact of others having fun with it, too. “The public, they love those movies.”
Moving forward, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will only continue to grow as other Marvel characters such as the Fantastic Four and X-Men see their cinematic rights returning to Disney.
Lee, however, has always been particularly fond of Spider-Man, the character he created in 1962. At the time of the above interview, the character had been portrayed through five films. “I don’t know if I’m easy to please but I thought Garfield did a great job and I thought Tobey Maguire…he was wonderful,” Lee said. “Maybe it’s an easy role to play. Maybe I should be Uncle Ben.”
While Lee has filmed several cameos for films which are yet to release (meaning fans can look forward to seeing him on the big screen), he has one bone to pick with the term. “The only thing that bothers me is that they refer to them as ‘cameos,’” Lee joked. “I like to think of it as ‘supporting roles.’”
Lee’s creations will continue to shine on the big screen and on the pages of Marvel Comics moving forward. Captain Marvel hits theaters in March of 2019, Avengers 4 follows it in May of 2019, and Spider-Man: Far From Home drops in July of 2019.
