Stan Lee’s Cameo in ‘Captain Marvel’ Is a Celebration to His Legacy According to Kevin Feige

While fans are eagerly awaiting Captain Marvel‘s debut this week, the film’s opening will be a little bittersweet as it is the first Marvel Studios film released after the passing of the legendary Stan Lee last fall. However, while there’s a high likelihood that the film’s tribute to will see some tears from fans, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says that the cameo is truly a celebration of his legacy.

Speaking at the red carpet premiere for Captain Marvel in Los Angeles, Feige reflected on Lee’s absence, but said that Captain Marvel‘s cameo, as well as the film itself, is a celebration of his legacy.

“It’s sad. I mean it feels like one of the first red carpets without him, this being the first Marvel Studios film released without him, you know,” Feige said. “Frankly, we feel like all the films we’ve made are a tribute to his work and we’re always trying to do our best and do right by he and all his co-creators. This one, though, is particularly important since it’s the first one. So, yes his cameo and this film sort of begins as a celebration to Stan and his legacy.”

Feige went on to address how Lee, who died on November 12, 2018 at the age of 95, got involved with cameos in the first place — as well as confirmed that there is at least one more after Captain Marvel.

“My memory of it is that it started as a tradition on X-Men … where he was the hot dog vendor in X-Men,” Feige said. “He had done a cameo before that, he was in the cartoons before that, of course the comics. I think he made a cameo in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk with Lou Ferrigno many years before, but through the X-Men movies, the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, it just became this amazing tradition not just so the fans had something to cheer for during the movie and a way to pay tribute to him, but it became a holiday on set. It became a national holiday when he was around on set up through this movie and an upcoming one as well.”

Feige doesn’t reveal specifically which film after Captain Marvel Lee will have a cameo in, however. With both Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home coming up after Captain Marvel, they are both solid possibilities. That said, it’s not impossible that the cameo could appear later on, as Marvel Studios has many more movies in the works. What is known is that the tribute in Captain Marvel is a moving one. Co-director Anna Boden recently told Metro that the moment was really emotional.

“I don’t want to get fired now, of all times,” Boden began. “It would be so weird if I got fired at this point in time. So I don’t want to say anything I’m not supposed to say, but just that it was… we did want to kind of have a moment and tribute to Stan Lee in this movie, obviously. It was something that came from Marvel and when they showed it to us, there was not a dry eye in the house. It was really emotional,” she added.

Captain Marvel stars Academy Award-winner Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou (Korath), Lee Pace (Ronan), Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan (Minn-Erva), Algenis Perez Soto, Rune Temte, McKenna Grace, Kenneth Mitchell (Joseph Danvers), with Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson), and Jude Law.

Captain Marvel is being released on March 8th. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Avengers: Endgame on April 26th, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.