Avengers: Endgame: Joe Russo reflects on Stan Lee’s final cameo

Avengers: Endgame will feature Stan Lee’s final cameo.

After Stan Lee’s death in November 2018, fans knew that the Marvel legend would only appear onscreen a few more times, and recently learned that the final cameo will come in Avengers: Endgame. 

Now, co-director Joe Russo has opened up a little more about what Stan Lee’s influence meant to the crew on the set, saying that is made “people feel like they were kids again.”

This was previously reported by ComicBook.com and We Got This Covered.

The full quote came from Russo’s interview (with his brother and co-director Anthony) with ComicBook.com:

"“This was his final cameo that was committed to film. It was always… Again, I grew up as a Marvel fanatic, and watching Spider-Man cartoon show as a kid with his voice in it. I think anything that affects you as a child really affects you as an adult, sticks with you. So when he would come on set, and we’d hear his voice, it’s sort of Pavlovian in a way, where you just become a child again. The whole crew would be like that. People were always… All these movie stars on set every day, and then Stan would show up, and it was just like people were kids all over again.”"

Lee first movie appearance came in the 1989 TV movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, and he went on to appear in around 50 movies, including all 22 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Lee also made appearances in numerous TV shows, both cartoons, as Russo noted above, and live action, both as himself and as characters. These live-action appearances included ABC’s Agent Carter (“The Blitzkrieg Button” 1.04) and Agents of SHIELD (“TRACKS” 1.13), Fox’s The Gifted (“eXposed” 1.01), and Hulu’s Runaways (“Metamorphosis” 1.06).

In Captain Marvel, Lee’s cameo went meta, as Stan played himself learning his lines for Mallrats while Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) tracked down Skrulls on the train.

Other memorable roles were the oblivious librarian in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the drunk veteran in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the FedEx delivery driver in Captain America: Civil War.

While it is incredibly sad for fans to deal with, Endgame being his final cameo has a nice air of symmetry, as it will close out Phase Three of the MCU, and likely see the end of the line for original characters Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chis Evans). Avengers: Endgame releases on April 26.