Every Stan Lee Marvel Movie Cameo

The last 18 years have seen the late, great Stan Lee reacquire his cult status due to a series of tremendous big-screen cameos. Lee had always believed that his Marvel superhero franchises had the potential to conquer Hollywood, and he lived to see himself proved right, not only celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but seeing how far the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises have come as well.

Technically, Lee's first cameo was in 1989, when he briefly appeared as a member of the jury in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. He almost appeared in 1998's Blade, when he'd have played a cop who discovered a burning body at a vampire club, but that was deleted from the final cut. Instead, it was in 2000 that the Stan Lee cameo tradition really began, and he swiftly became the public face of Marvel movies.

Lee has appeared in no less than 36 Marvel films, with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 even hinting that his character is an assistant to the alien race known as the Watchers - and, thus, that every single cameo is actually an appearance by the same inter-dimensional being. Of course, there's more to Stan Lee's cameos than just being in Marvel movies, such as appearing in Teen Titans GO! To The Movies and even in Insomniac's Spider-Man PS4 game, but for now, let's take a look at all of his Marvel movie cameos.

This Page: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Cameos
Page 2: Stan Lee's Non-MCU Cameos
Page 3: The Upcoming Stan Lee Marvel Cameos

Stan Lee's MCU Cameos in Phase 1 and Phase 2

Stan Lee's Marvel cameos had already become a tradition by 2008, and Marvel Studios chose to continue it when they launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2008's Iron Man. The film featured an entertaining scene in which Tony Stark wandered through a party, meeting and greeting people. "You look great, Hef," Stark said, clapping an elderly gentleman on the back. When the man turned round, it was revealed to be none other than Stan Lee, with the credits confirming that he was playing "himself." There's a subtle degree of humor surrounding this cameo that has largely been forgotten by fans; Lee worked with Hugh Hefner, in 2004, on a TV series called Hef's Superbunnies. This first cameo set the tone and style of the Stan Lee appearances in the MCU, and, over the next few years, he appeared in every single MCU film.

The Incredible Hulk (2008): Lee was a hapless citizen who drank a bottle of Gamma-irradiated soft drink. Curiously enough, this is the only cameo that is technically important to a film's plot; it allowed General Ross to trace the Hulk to Mexico.
Iron Man 2 (2010): Tony Stark again mistook Stan Lee, this time thinking he was Larry King.
Thor (2011): In one of the most popular cameos, Lee was a pickup-truck driver who was attempting to move Thor's hammer.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011): Lee was a general who mistook another character for Captain America - continuing the theme of mistaken identity, albeit in a slightly different way.
The Avengers (2012): One of the more ironic cameos, this saw Stan Lee interviewed about the Battle of New York. "Superheroes in New York," he complained. "Give me a break!" He also appeared in a deleted scene in which he advised Steve Rogers to get a waitress' phone number.
Iron Man 3 (2013): Lee played a beauty pageant judge who happily scored one contestant a "10."
Thor: The Dark World (2013): In another popular cameo, Lee was a patient at a mental institution whose shoe had been taken by Dr. Eric Selvig as a prop.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014): Lee played a security guard at the Smithsonian Institution who was horrified to realize the Captain America outfit had been stolen.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): Rocket spotted Lee chatting with beautiful young women while on the planet Xandar, and dismissed him sarcastically.

Stan Lee's Cameos in Avengers: Age of Ultron & Beyond

Earlier this year, Stan Lee revealed that his favorite Marvel cameo was in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which released in 2015. In this cameo, Lee was standing at a bar with Thor and insisted on drinking a sip of Asgardian ale. The next scene showed him being carried out, with the slurred comment, "Excelsior!" There was a simple reason Lee loved this one above all the other; as he explained, "It's the only one I did that has two scenes." Lee had always fancied himself as a potential film star, and expressed a hope that maybe next time they'd give him three. Amusing as it was, for the average viewer, this was just another entertaining Stan Lee cameo - and the tradition continued on through the next few MCU films.

Ant-Man (2015): Lee briefly appeared as a bartender.
Captain America: Civil War (2016): Another cameo that delighted fans, this saw Lee turn up as a FedEx postman and accidentally ask for "Tony Stank."
Doctor Strange (2016): Lee appeared as a passenger on a bus who was reading a book by Aldous Huxley on perception.

Stan Lee's Cameos After Guardians Of The Galaxy 2's Watcher Theory

Stan Lee talks to the Watchers in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2

Stan Lee's cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) is probably his most important to Marvel-viewers. It saw Marvel acknowledge a popular fan-theory that all the different glimpses of Stan Lee were actually the same person, a cosmic being who was traveling through time and space. Director James Gunn presented Lee as the "Watcher's Informant," and it saw him recounting the events of Captain America: Civil War to the alien race known as the Watchers. With his role in the MCU clarified, Stan Lee continued to pop up in similar cameos over the course of the last few MCU movies.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017): Lee played an annoyed neighbor who yelled down at Peter Parker.
Thor: Ragnarok (2017): Fitting perfectly with Taika Waititi's screwball comedy style, Lee was a servant of the Grandmaster who shaved Thor's head - and prompted a horrified reaction from the God of Thunder.
Black Panther (2018): Possibly Lee's most self-aware cameo, he was a gambler at a South Korean casino. When T'Challa abandoned his winnings, Lee scooped them up. "You know what? I think I’ll just take these, bring them over here, and hold onto them for safekeeping." It feels like a sly jab at the controversy over whether or not Lee should really be classed as the creator of so many of his characters, given the "Marvel Method" was more of a partnership between writers and artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018): Lee was the driver of Peter Parker's school bus. In an amusing turnaround from his cameo in 2012's The Avengers, this time round he was distinctly unimpressed by extraterrestrial activity. "What's the matter with you kids?," he grumbled. "You never seen a spaceship before?"
Ant-Man & the Wasp (2018): This is another fascinating one, with Lee acting as a pedestrian whose car was shrunk down by the Wasp. "Well, the '60s were fun," he remarked, "but now I'm paying for it." The implication was that his character had used to do drugs.

Page 2 of 3: Stan Lee's Non-MCU Cameos

Technically, Stan Lee's first ever big-screen cameo was in 1989's The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, where he played a member of a jury who watched in horror as the Hulk transformed. But the modern tradition of the Stan Lee cameo began with Bryan Singer's X-Men in 2000, where Lee briefly appeared in a beach scene as he saw a mutating Senator Kelly emerge from the sea. Lee enjoyed the cameo, and the success of X-Men led to a surge in superhero films throughout the early 2000s. These were produced by 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures, but Lee had good relations with the two studios, and so he continued to appear even after the launch of the MCU in 2008. His notable cameos are:

Spider-Man (2002): A brief scene showed Lee pulling a little girl out of the way of falling debris from a battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. In a deleted scene, Lee played a street vendor who tried to sell Peter Parker a pair of sunglasses.
Daredevil (2003): In one particularly entertaining cameo, a distracted Lee is about to cross a busy road at the wrong moment, but is stopped by the young (blind) Matt Murdock. The comical expression of confusion on Lee's face is perfect.
Hulk (2003): Lee appeared walking alongside Lou Ferrigno as security guards at Bruce Banner's lab. This was Lee's first speaking role in a live-action movie.
Spider-Man 2 (2004): This cameo repeated the idea of Lee saving a bystander. Another delete scene saw him shouting, "Look, Spider-Man stole that kid's sneakers!"
Fantastic Four (2005): In one of Lee's few credited roles, he appeared as the Fantastic Four's postman, Willie Lumpkin - a character Lee created.
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006): A brief scene revealed that Stan Lee and Chris Claremont were among Jean Grey's neighbors, and Lee was watering the lawn when Jean telekinetically raised the water into the air.
Spider-Man 3 (2007): One of Lee's most powerful cameos, this saw him offer advice to Peter Parker. "You know," Lee observed, "I guess one person can make a difference." He then walked off after issuing his trademark, "'Nuff said."
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007): Lee appeared as a wedding guest attempting to attend Reed and Sue's wedding, but was turned away because his name wasn't on the list. This was a perfect homage to 1965's Fantastic Four Annual, which featured an amusing scene in which Lee and Kirby were turned away from the same wedding.

Stan Lee's Cameos Continued After The MCU's Launch

The launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe transformed the superhero genre. It coincided with a time of difficulty for 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures. Fox's little-loved X-Men: The Last Stand had apparently brought the X-Men franchise to a close, while Sony struggled to get Spider-Man 4 off the ground. As a result, for a few years, Lee only made cameos in official MCU films. All that changed in 2012, when Sony finally released The Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. In one of his most popular cameos, Lee played a librarian at Midtown Science High School, who was listening to music and thus blissfully unaware of the battle between Spider-Man and the Lizard taking place behind him. Lee's cameos then continued in other non-MCU films:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014): A guest at the graduation of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, Lee recognized Peter from... somewhere.
Big Hero 6 (2014): Nobody really expected a Stan Lee cameo in Big Hero 6, given this was an animated film and he had nothing to do with these characters in the comics. To the delight of Marvel fans, though, Lee's voice and likeness were used for the father of one of the heroes, Fred, and he appeared in a promising post-credits scene.
Deadpool (2016): Lee played an MC at a strip club.

X-Men: Apocalypse and Beyond

Stan Lee's cameo in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse is one of his most heartening. He played a terrified homeowner who held his wife close to him as nuclear missiles launched into the sky; in reality, the wife was played by Stan's beloved Joan Lee, who would pass away just a year later. It was the only cameo to feature both of the couple, and, as such, it stands out above all the rest.

Since then, there have been just two further non-MCU Stan Lee cameos, reflecting the fact that Lee's health was beginning to deteriorate, and so he was finding the trips to the studios a little more arduous. The comic book legend shot an entertaining cameo in the 2017 short film No Good Deed, which aired before Logan and promoted Deadpool 2 - "Zip it, Stan Lee," Deadpool snarked at him, to the delight of audiences. The final Stan Lee cameo to air before his death was in this year's Venom, in which his character heard Eddie Brock chatting to his symbiote partner and offered impromptu relationship advice. "Who is that guy," the symbiote snarled, before getting distracted by the idea of eating Lee's dog.

Page 3 of 3: Stan Lee's Upcoming Marvel Cameos

Stan Lee's Upcoming Marvel Cameos

The last few years saw Marvel Studios begin to take a different approach to the Stan Lee cameos. Lee's failing health meant jetting across the country to film a couple of minutes' worth of scenes was exerting a toll, and Marvel came up with the smart idea of filming cameos in bulk so as not to ask him to come on set too many times. As Avengers 4 co-director Joe Russo said, they would film Lee's cameo in bulk if they were shooting multiple movies on the same lot at the same time. Lee is known to have shot a cameo for the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4, and it's highly likely he completed one for Captain Marvel as well. Looking beyond these two films, it's possible Marvel shot some additional cameos just in case.

Looking beyond the MCU, though, it's already been confirmed that Stan Lee will appear in Sony's animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Sony Pictures screened the first half of the film at this year's New York Comic Con, and it revealed that Lee voiced the owner of a costume shop visited by Miles Morales. Sadly, it's been confirmed that Lee hadn't shot a cameo for Fox's Dark Phoenix, which indicates the same is probably true for New Mutants, meaning Lee's X-Men cameos are presumably at an end. However, it's possible that Lee filmed a cameo for New Mutants during the movie's principal photography phase, before ultimately being delayed and requiring reshoots.

Even though Stan Lee has passed away, his legacy will continue to live on. Viewers will no doubt be rewatching all the classic Marvel movies with a sense of grief and nostalgia, and these cameos will be strangely bittersweet. Meanwhile, it's quite possible that next year's Avengers 4 will be even more heart-wrenching than anyone had expected. It's already expected to be the swan song for some of Marvel's most popular actors, but it may also be the last time audiences see a Stan Lee cameo on the big screen.