By now, it’s not a secret that Kevin Smith final got a cameo of sorts in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film by way of Stan Lee‘s cameo in Captain Marvel. Smith has been pretty outspoken about how much that moment meant to him. Now, though, he reveals when he found out about the cameo — and it turns out that he got the word from Kevin Feige.
Minor Captain Marvel spoilers below.
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In Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is tracking down some Skrulls who showed up on Earth and ends up pursuing them onto a train. While working her way through the train cars in pursuit, she happens upon a man reading the script to Mallrats while going over a line — “Trust me, True Believer”. That man? Stan Lee. That movie script? One of Kevin Smith’s early movie projects.
While the moment was a powerful one for fans of both Lee — who passed away last November — and Smith, the filmmaker was moved to tears while watching it and, unsurprisingly, was moved to tears when he found out about the cameo months in advance from the Marvel Studios president.
“I knew before I got to the theater,” Smith explains in a video on YouTube. “I got a phone call a couple months back after Stan passed away from the great Kevin Feige over at Marvel Studios and naturally when f**ing Kevin Feige calls … you pick up the phone right away.”
He went on to explain that after reminiscing about Stan, Feige broke the news about the cameo.
“Kevin was like ‘I read your Stan thing,’ because I had put up an Instagram post after Stan passed and he was like ‘I heard the podcast’…” he said. “So we were talking about how bummed we were that Stan had passed and then Kevin goes ‘well, I’m calling you with a very specific reason’ and he goes ‘I gotta tell you this but you can’t tell anybody, in order for me to go forward I’ve gotta tell you Stan’s cameo in Captain Marvel.’”
For Smith, the moment was especially touching. Lee was a longtime friend of the filmmaker, but it also represented a full-circle moment of sorts. As Lee mentioned in his reaction to the cameo on Twitter, after his own years of referencing the movies, the movies referenced him.
“I am a blubbering mess,” Smith said of his Captain Marvel reaction. “After a lifetime spent referencing the movies, the movies just referenced me! Many thanks to Marvel Studios and to my friend Stan Lee four the shout-out!”
Captain Marvel is now in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Studios films include Avengers: Endgame on April 26th and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.
Did you catch the Mallrats shout out in Captain Marvel? What’s your favorite Stan Lee cameo of all time? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
