When you think of the staples in Marvel superhero movies, certain things come to mind: heroes with exceptional abilities, a beautiful love interest, a formidable nemesis, and Stan Lee. The man created most of the Marvel characters that populate theater screens year after year, and the filmmakers have thanked him for his contributions by letting him share a bit of the limelight, via blink-or-you’ll-miss-it cameos.
Lee’s appeared in 20 Marvel films to date (and on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D), but doesn’t cameo in films based on characters he didn’t create (The Wolverine, Punisher, Elektra and Ghost Rider, for example). Back in January, the comic icon claimed that for this reason, he wouldn’t be in Guardians of the Galaxy:
“That’s the one group I didn’t create. I didn’t write Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m not even sure who they all are.”
However, he is credited – alongside Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers – with creating Groot, and apparently that was reason enough to get him to cameo after all. Today, he was asked during a panel at Chicago expo C2E2 if he will indeed make an appearance in Marvel’s upcoming space adventure, and he responded by saying:
“I did, already. I can’t tell you what it is, but I can tell you I do not understand what it was or why I did it. It has me with a girl — a very pretty girl — that’s all I can tell you.”
So, there we have it! The legend will live on. Now we just have to wait until August 1st to find out exactly what Lee is doing in Guardians of the Galaxy. Excelsior!