Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse contains what many consider to be a touching tribute to the late Stan Lee, who passed away in November of last year. But when it came time for the team behind the Sony hit to accept the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, neither Lee nor Spider-Man’s late co-creator Steve Ditko got a mention.
In the team’s defense, producer Bob Persichetti has since explained that they had every intention of mentioning Lee and Ditko in their acceptance speech before the Oscar cutoff music forced them off the stage, with the OscarInterviews Twitter account explaining the situation as follows:
“Bob Persichetti on the rest of their speech: ‘We were going to thank Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for inspiring this whole thing and being a force of believing human beings all have the capacity to be heroes.’”
Nonetheless, as far as viewers at home could tell, Persichetti had simply neglected to mention the two men responsible for creating the original web-slinger. And just as the cast of Black Panther drew some criticism last month for failing to shout out Lee at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, some fans took to Twitter to point out the omission from last night’s speech:
So the new Spider-Man movie Into the spider-verse won an Oscar, and no one that was up on that stage gave any thanks to Stan Lee…..
— Him (@gwfiske) February 25, 2019
Random Thought, Oscars Edition pt. 3:
Even tho the producers of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse" completely dogged him in their acceptance speeches, the Academy honored STAN LEE bu including him in their "In Memoriam" tribute…— Proud Native San Diegan (@dto2865) February 25, 2019
Ten people from “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” get on stage to accept an award and no one thanks the late, great Stan Lee?? #Oscars
— Red (@SurvivingGrady) February 25, 2019
Nonetheless, though Lee went unmentioned by the team behind Spider-Verse, many fans have insisted that the late comic book creator would’ve been proud to see the film win either way:
Black Panther and Spider-Man:Into The Spider-Verse both won #Oscars tonight. Marvel is winning. BLACK Marvel is winning. I know Stan Lee would have been so proud. #Oscars2019 pic.twitter.com/wAKCQOPGdI
— 𝕔𝕛 ⎊ 🪩 (@LemonadeBeystin) February 25, 2019
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse won best animated film
I’m so happy I could cry. I just wish Stan Lee could’ve seen this #Oscars— gabby (@gabbyyboo) February 25, 2019
Black Panther & Spider-Man into the Spiderverse winning Oscars tonight. A win for comic book movies. Stan Lee would be so proud if he was here❤️😩🤧🤧 His creations getting recognized like this!!!🙌🏾#Oscars pic.twitter.com/oAruXHjBLE
— Gemini’s Groove (@atb__william) February 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/ShinjiIkariKun1/status/1099875699991764992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1099875699991764992&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fmarvel%2F2019%2F02%2F25%2Fspider-man-into-spider-verse-oscars-stan-lee-speech%2F
Indeed, despite the lack of awards for Avengers: Infinity War, it was a good night all-round for the Marvel brand, between the Academy Award win for Spider-Verse, and the three Oscars received by Black Panther.
Looking to the future, however, Marvel Studios’ next film Captain Marvel is just over a week away from release, and is said to have a pretty moving Stan Lee tribute of its own. But if you’re more interested in the Sony side of things, it was reported last November that a Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel is already in development.
