Kevin Smith has revealed the late Stan Lee will be honored with a scene in Mallrats 2. The upcoming movie is yet another in Smith's View Askewniverse, which began with Clerks in 1994. Since then, it's gone on to include a total of eight films, the most recent of which was 2019's Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. Smith has written all of the movies in his universe and directed all but one, Jay & Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie!. He also acts in the franchise as Silent Bob and has appeared as the character in every View Askewniverse movie.
Mallrats 2, officially titled Twilight of the Mallrats, has been in the works for a long time. The original Mallrats came out 25 years ago, making for an unusually long gap between films. Smith first announced the sequel in 2015, however, it never came to fruition. The next year, he revealed Mallrats 2 would instead be a TV series, though that didn't end up happening either. Fans were then especially excited to hear early this year that the sequel was not only back in the works, but also had a title. Since then, Smith has provided several updates, most recently revealing he's completed the script.
In Mallrats, Marvel comics legend Stan Lee plays a key role, offering Jason Lee's Brodie Bruce romantic advice. Recently, while speaking with ComicBook, Smith revealed the new movie features a Lee scene as well, saying "We have a Stan Lee scene. Obviously, Stan Lee won't be in it because Stan's passed." He went on to explain:
Sometimes as a writer I'm like 'oh that was clever, that's clever' and stuff like where you want to share it with people but you're like 'I'll wait until I can give it to everybody at once' but the Stan Lee scene in Twilight of the Mallrats is one of those moments that I consider like 'oh that's clever' and even if I wasn't me and I just liked my movies I would be like 'that's a good, what a good, what a way to do it, man.' So, it's pretty special and Stan, even though he's not with us, kind of looms throughout the movie because Brodie, when we come to him 25 years later is still talking about the best day of his life which we all know is the movie Mallrats.
In addition to his impressive career at Marvel, Lee became known for his cameos in the MCU. He appeared in every single film, including Avengers: Endgame, which was released after his death. He typically appeared only briefly, for one usually humorous line. Notably, in Captain Marvel, Lee is seen on a train where he happens to be reading his lines from Mallrats. His MCU appearances included TV as well; he appeared on both Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter. Lee also popped up in other Marvel, but non-MCU movies and TV shows, including Sam Raimi and Marc Webb's Spider-Man films.
Mallrats fans should be happy to hear Stan Lee will play a role in the upcoming sequel, despite his passing. Lee looms large in the original film, so it's only right for him to also have an impact on Mallrats 2. Though it's unknown at this time when the movie will be released, at least now fans know they have one special scene to look forward to.
Source: ComicBook