Kevin Smith has been one of the biggest fans and supporters of comics and comic book movies for decades on end, so much so that he’s now earned his own Easter egg in the biggest nerd franchise on the planet. Thanks to Captain Marvel, Kevin Smith officially exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Captain Marvel! Continue reading at your own risk.
If you’re a big fan of Smith’s work, you’ll know that he was a longtime friend of Marvel legend Stan Lee. One of the catalysts behind their close relationship was the director’s second film, Mallrats, in which Lee made his first big cameo.
Fast-forward to Captain Marvel, which was released in theaters this weekend but takes place in 1995, the same year Mallrats made its debut. Lee has made a cameo in every single movie in the MCU, and Captain Marvel is no different, but this one provides a nice callback to that initial Mallrats appearance more than two decades ago. When Lee is spotted in Captain Marvel, he’s a rider on a train, and he happens to be reading a Mallrats script, going over the same lines from his original cameo.
If you pay attention to the credits, you’ll notice that Stan Lee is listed as playing himself, meaning the guy in the movie wasn’t just a setup or a gag, but rather the actual Lee on the way to film Mallrats by director Kevin Smith.
People like Kevin Smith existing in the MCU may be kind of a silly notion, as the entire universe of films takes place in a reality that’s just slightly different than our own. Sure, superheroes and magic and time travel exist, but a lot of the normal parts of everyday life are still the same. But it’s still nice to see him get a nod from the folks he’s spent so long supporting, especially when it comes in the form of an Easter egg that combines so many different parts of nerd culture as this cameo does.
Who knows, maybe one day we’ll see Kevin Smith himself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Captain Marvel is now playing in theaters.
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