Guardians of the Galaxy Director James Gunn Clears the Air Over Inaccurate Stan Lee Cameo Rumors

One of the most iconic things about the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been the cameos from Marvel legend, Stan Lee. Until his passing, Lee famously appeared in every Marvel movie with fan-favorite moments like him reading the Mallrats script in Captain Marvel or appearing as his younger self in 1970 in Avengers: Endgame. Naturally, Lee also appeared in both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which were directed by James Gunn. Recently, Gunn took to Twitter to clear up a rumor that has been circulated about Lee's cameo in his Marvel film.

Twitter user @rcisneros1233 shared an expert from IMDb that read, "Stan Lee's cameo was originally going to feature him as one of the Collector's boxed trophies, giving Groot the middle finger. 'Disney' executives didn't like this, and had James Gunn change it to Lee being an alien Casanova." The OP captioned their post, "@JamesGunn I was reading on @IMDb about Stand Lee's original cameo. Any chance you got to shoot the scene? Would be awesome to see a photo of him doing that to Groot!" Gunn saw the post and replied, "This is inaccurate. This was the original cameo, yes, but I chose to change it, not Disney, because we cut the scene it was in way down & it felt like too many beats. Also why is Disney in quotes?" You can check out the post below:

This is inaccurate. This was the original cameo, yes, but I chose to change it, not Disney, because we cut the scene it was in way down & it felt like too many beats. Also why is Disney in quotes? https://t.co/ATu51qKNgy

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) April 16, 2021

Gunn has been busy working on The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker for DC, but he is expected to return to Marvel for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. In fact, he recently answered some fan questions on social media, and revealed that the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 script is "written and most of the production heads have been hired."

"I believe it's okay to say that we will go into production late [2021]," Dave Bautista (Drax) recently shared with Entertainment Weekly. "I saw a script early on when we were all on schedule and James Gunn was attached before everything went nutso. I believe because [Marvel's] whole calendar has changed [due to the pandemic shutdown and Guardians' production delays], that storylines have changed, and they won't intersect like originally planned. Obviously, we lost Chadwick [Boseman], so I don't know where that leaves Black Panther. I haven't seen a new script, is the short answer."

Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are both currently available to stream on Disney+. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 does not yet have a release date but is expected to be released sometime in 2023. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is expected to drop on Disney+ in December 2022.