No matter the hero in the lead or the time period or the tone, there was one thing that tied every movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe together: legendary comic book creator Stan Lee was always there to drop by for a cameo. Sadly, Lee passed away in November 2018 at the age of 95. Given how much a fixture of the franchise his cameos were, though, fans are wondering if the studio will ever employ someone else to pick up where the great man left off to appear in every film.
If you don’t like the sounds of that, however, don’t worry, as we’ve been assured that this is not something Marvel’s planning. Executive producer Victoria Alonso spoke to Miami Latin News recently and was asked “who’s next?” to take over Lee’s cameos. Alonso made clear that they “will never try” to find someone else to fill his spot in the MCU, saying:
“Stan Lee is not replaceable. So we will never try. That is the legend, the man, we will never try to replace him. Other people will come around, and then you have someone as phenomenally creative as [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige, but there’s only one Stan Lee.”
Lee’s last cameo, filmed prior to his death, came in Avengers: Endgame and used de-aging tech to have the legend turn up as his 40-year-old self in a flashback set in 1969, driving past Camp Lehigh – flanked by two hippy women – and shouting “make peace not war” at the guards.
There have been previous theories that Ryan Reynolds could show up in every movie from now on, seeing as Deadpool is about to join the MCU thanks to the Fox takeover, and the Merc with the Mouth’s fourth wall-breaking abilities would allow him to drop by wherever. However, it doesn’t seem like this is going to happen, and that’s probably for the best. After all, nothing could top Stan Lee‘s cameos.
