New Fantastic Four: First Steps Poster Pays Tribute to Stan Lee (With a Hulk Easter Egg)

There may not be a Stan Lee cameo in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but the late co-creator is still part of the Marvel family. Marvel Studios has announced that tickets for the Matt Shakman-directed adaptation of Lee and Jack Kirby’s classic comic book run go on sale Wednesday (June 4) with a new poster, which not only spotlights Marvel’s First Family — Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — but includes a nod to another Lee-Kirby co-creation of the 1960s: The Hulk.

Hidden among the retro-futuristic version of ’60s New York is a billboard for Stanley’s, which appears to be a deli in this alternate Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s also a nod to 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which paid homage to Lee with Stanley’s Pizza Parlor.

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The Virginia-based pizzeria owned and operated by Stanley “Stan” Markowitz Lieber (Paul Soles) — a character named after Lee’s birth name, Stanley Martin Lieber — is where the fugitive Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) hid out before being reunited with Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) in the main MCU.

Marvel Easter Eggs in The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Trailers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps revealed a Stanley’s Service Center located on Yancy Street, the home turf of Ben Grimm, which can be glimpsed when the Thing hoists a Volkswagen Beetle over his head. Located next to that is Kirby’s Electrical Supplies, an apparent reference to the legendary artist’s penchant for depicting futuristic technology in everything from Fantastic Four, Strange Tales, and Machine Man to DC’s New Gods. Last but not least, true believers know the Fantastic Four’s space ship, the Excelsior, is named after Lee’s famous catchphrase.

Other retail-related Easter eggs that can be spotted in the film’s trailers include Westview Appliances — named after the New Jersey town where Avengers Scarlet Witch and Vision lived in WandaVision, the Disney+ series directed by Shakman — and an office for Timely Comics. The predecessor of Fantastic Four publisher Marvel Comics, Timely introduced such characters as Namor the Sub-Mariner and Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch.

Lee’s final traditional cameo was a posthumous appearance in Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Marvel most recently paid tribute to Lee in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, where he could be seen very briefly on a bus advertisement for Stanlee Steamer, AKA “Your friendly neighborhood cleaners” since 1922 (Lee’s birth year).

The Fantastic Four: First Steps — which stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Niles, with Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson as Galactus — opens only in theaters July 25.