Stan Lee’s Alternate Doctor Strange Cameos Revealed

Stan Lee is an undisputed geek icon, and he reigns as one of Hollywood’s Cameo Kings. The heralded comic writer is known for popping into the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s film, and fans have come to anticipate Lee’s one-off appearances. Most recently, the legend appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 but Doctor Strange housed one of his recent cameos as well. And, now, one director is shedding light on Lee’s alternate cameos for the film.

Taking to Facebook, James Gunn posted a behind-the-scenes photo of him with Lee and Zoe Saldana. The director, who has overseen the Guardians of the Galaxy films, recalled when he shot Lee’s cameos for Doctor Strange when Scott Derrickson was occupied.

“Doing my pal Scott Derrickson a solid and shooting Stan Lee‘s cameo for Doctor Strange at the same time I was shooting some stunt work with Zoe Saldana – I run between sets on one soundstage. Stan laughing at The Doors of Perception was what ended up in the film, but we shot other options,” Gunn admitted.

Continuing, the director went on to list the various other cameos which Lee took a stab at. You can read up on them below:

• Stan reading a book and leaning into the guy next to him, saying, “Do you know what excelsior means?”
• Stan throwing his head back and laughing as hard as he can, yelling, “I’m laughing for no reason! I’m totally crazy!”
• Stan laughing hysterically at a Garfield book, hooting, “He HATES Mondays but he LOVES lasagna!” Supposedly that one was in the film for a while, but it ended up being too long for the scene.

In-between takes, Gunn admitted he had to shift focus from Lee to Saldana as the director needed stunt footage of Gamora in action. The back-and-forth surely led to an exhausting day on set, but Lee’s jovial nature kept the crew on their toes. For now, fans can just imagine what these cut cameos would have looked like on the big screen, and they may even get released one day if Marvel Studios is feeling kind.

Seriously, just give us the Garfield clip. That alone would be enough to tide fans over.

Our composite ranking puts Doctor Strange as the #10th Best Superhero Movie, while our own readers have ranked it ComicBook.com’s 11th Best of all time.

But what did you think of the film? Let us know with your own vote in the Movie Database below!

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From Marvel Studios comes Doctor Strange, the story of world-famous neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange whose life changes forever after a horrific car accident robs him of the use of his hands. When traditional medicine fails him, he is forced to look for healing, and hope, in an unlikely place – a mysterious enclave known as Kamar-Taj. He quickly learns that this is not just a center for healing but also the front line of a battle against unseen dark forces bent on destroying our reality. Before long, Strange – armed with newly acquired magical powers – is forced to choose whether to return to his life of fortune and status or leave it all behind to defend the world as the most powerful sorcerer in existence.

Doctor Strange stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, and Scott Adkins, with Mads Mikkelsen and Tilda Swinton. Scott Derrickson is directing with Kevin Feige producing. Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard, Charles Newirth and Stan Lee serve as executive producers. Jon Spaihts and Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill wrote the screenplay.