Spike Lee Responds to Being Mistaken for Stan Lee in Obituary

News of Stan Lee‘s death has rocked the world in recent days, and even the less-than-accurate reporting has gotten quite a lot of attention.

The Tuesday edition of the Gisborne Herald recently featured an obituary to Lee, who was incorrectly identified as director Spike Lee. Spike Lee recently shared the snafu on his Instagram account, simultaneously offering his condolences for Stan while revealing that yes, he is still alive.

The Gisborne Herald has since addressed the typo, which has already gotten quite a lot of attention on social media.

“People are having a bit of fun with it.” editor Jeremy Muir explained to Stuff.Co.NZ. “That’s fine. It’s just really embarrassing. It’s a human mistake.”

Fans and celebrities alike have been pouring their hearts out for Lee on social media, remembering the man’s prolific impact on comics, movies, and television. And as Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige hinted, the world will still get to see Lee grace the big screen in Avengers 4 and possibly beyond.

“I’m not going to tell you what specifically, but Stan always appreciated a good surprise,” Feige recently said of the possibility of more Lee cameos.

Born Stanley Martin Lieber, Lee began working in comics in 1939, back when Marvel Comics was still Timely Comics but rose to prominence in the 1960s. He collaborated with Jack Kirby to create the Fantastic Four and birth the Marvel Universe as we know it, and with Steve Ditko to create Spider-Man and redefine what a superhero could be. From there, he helped create some of the most popular comic book, TV, a film characters ever, including the X-Men, the Avengers, Black Panther, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and Daredevil.

In an interview with ComicBook.com in 2015, Lee reflected on how he could never have expected his comics would spawn a multi-billion dollar franchise.

“No, no, years ago when I was doing these comics, we’d give the comic books away free to people,” Lee said. “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.”

Lee was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from his home in Hollywood Hills early Monday morning. He died at the hospital later the same day. No cause of death has been named as of yet, but Lee has recently been stricken with a number of illnesses, including a bout of pneumonia. He was 95 years old.