Marvel fans the world over have been mourning the loss of the legend that was Stan Lee this week, following his death on Monday at the age of 95. Social media has been awash with everyone from comic book readers to movie stars sharing their grief at the passing of the iconic creator, but one of the more controversial tweets which got some attention came from actor Armie Hammer.
Hammer took to Twitter to sarcastically comment on how many celebrities were sharing photos of themselves with Lee, criticizing everyone for making the death of the great man about them instead of him. As expected, many hit back at The Longe Ranger star for his take on things, arguing that those sharing their photos with Lee were just doing so because meeting him meant so much to them. Memorably, The Walking Dead star Jeffrey Dean Morgan called Hammer out on his tweet, labeling him “an asshat.”
A few days after his initial statement, Hammer has now followed it up with an apology. “While attempting to provide some unnecessary social commentary about the current selfie culture,” his note begins, “I (in true asshat form — thank you, Jeffrey Dean Morgan) inadvertently offended many who were genuinely grieving the loss of a true icon. I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart and will be working on my Twitter impulse control.”
Clearly, the Call Me By Your Name star regrets his comments – in particular, trying to make a larger point about the times and people’s use of social media during such a sad event. Many of us have impulse-tweeted something at one point or another, of course, but luckily for us, we don’t have millions of followers ready to zero in on our comments if we make a mistake. Hammer’s apology seems pretty genuine though, so hopefully his fans and those who miss Stan Lee won’t hold it against him and we can all move on from this.