The following is a list of cameo appearances by Stan Lee (1922–2018) in Marvel Comics films, television shows and video games. A prolific comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer, Lee has also had numerous cameos in non-Marvel media.
Marvel appearances Marvel Cinematic Universe
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stan Lee portrayed himself as an informant for the Watchers, keeping watch and detailing events that take place on Earth. Lee appeared in each installment of the franchise from Iron Man (2008) to Avengers: Endgame (2019), prior to his death. According to Joe Russo, Lee's cameos were filmed consecutively with cameos already filmed for releases in 2019.
Films In Iron Man (2008), Lee, credited as "Himself", appears at a gala cavorting with three blondes, where Tony Stark mistakes him for Hugh Hefner. In the theatrical release of the film, Stark simply greets Lee as "Hef" and moves on; another version of the scene was filmed where Stark realizes his mistake, but Lee graciously responds, "That's okay, I get this all the time."Iron Man Ultimate 2-Disc Edition DVD, disc 2, I Am Iron Man documentary. In 2008, Stan Lee named this as his favorite cameo appearance to that date. In The Incredible Hulk (2008), Lee appears as a hapless citizen who accidentally ingests a soft drink contaminated with Bruce Banner's blood. He subsequently drops it and falls ill to gamma radiation sickness, leading to the discovery of Banner's location in a bottling plant in Brazil. A character in the film is also named after him: Stanley Lieber, who owns Stanley's Pizza Parlor. In Iron Man 2 (2010), during the Stark Expo, Lee, wearing suspenders and a red shirt and black and purple tie, is mistakenly greeted by Tony Stark as "Larry King". In Thor (2011), Lee appears among many people at the site where Thor's hammer Mjolnir lands on Earth. He tears the bed off his pickup truck in an attempt to pull Mjolnir out of the ground with a chain and causes everyone in the scene to laugh by asking, "Did it work?". His character is credited as "Stan the Man", a nickname he had adopted during the Silver Age of Comic Books. In Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Lee plays a general in World War II who mistakes another man for Steve Rogers / Captain America, commenting, "I thought he'd be taller." Lee did not create the character of Captain America, but created the idea of him using his shield as a throwing weapon. Furthermore, he was responsible for reviving the character in the Silver Age of Comic Books and co-wrote most of the character's stories in The Avengers and his solo stories in that period. In The Avengers (2012), Lee's character is interviewed about the Avengers saving Manhattan. Lee's character responds, "Superheroes in New York? Give me a break", and then returns to his game of chess. He also appears in a deleted scene in which, when a waitress flirts with Steve Rogers, Lee says to him, "Ask for her number, you moron!" In Iron Man 3 (2013), Lee portrays a beauty pageant judge who appears on a television monitor and happily gives one of the contestants a 10. In Thor: The Dark World (2013), Lee appears as a mental ward patient who loans his shoe to Erik Selvig for a demonstration about "the Convergence" in his delusions. When Selvig finishes and asks if anyone has questions, Lee says, "Yeah, can I have my shoe back?". In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Lee plays a security guard at the Smithsonian Institution who after discovering that Captain America stole his uniform from an exhibit, says, "Oh man, I am so fired". In Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Lee appears as an elderly gentleman having a conversation with a significantly younger woman. Rocket, viewing him through a scanning device, dismisses him as part of what he saw was wrong with the planet Xandar. His catchphrase, Excelsior appears in Kree on the device. With the exception of the characters Groot, Ronan the Accuser, and the Collector, Lee did not have a hand in the creation of the comics Guardians of the Galaxy. In Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Lee appears as a World War II veteran who attends the Avengers' victory party. He claims he fought at Omaha Beach and that it proves he can handle a shot of Asgardian liquor from Thor, but is then carried away drunk, muttering his catchphrase, "Excelsior". Lee noted at the time that this was his favorite cameo before X-Men: Apocalypse. In Ant-Man (2015), Lee appears as a bartender in a story Luis tells to Scott Lang explaining that Sam Wilson was looking for him. Note: Click "Read More" link. His part in the story is encouraging Luis's cousin, and the informer of the story, Ignacio, to talk to a "crazy stupid fine" woman at a table separate from the bar. In Captain America: Civil War (2016), Lee appears as a FedEx postman, delivering a package from Steve Rogers to Tony Stark at the end of the film, mispronouncing the latter's name as "Tony Stank". In Doctor Strange (2016), Lee appears as a bus rider reading Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, oblivious to a battle between Doctor Strange, Karl Mordo, and Kaecilius. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Lee appears as an astronaut telling a story to the Watchers, mentioning his stint as a deliveryman in Civil War. He appears again in the post-credits scenes, where the Watchers leave, tired of his stories as he quotes to them that they are his only ride back to Earth. The Watchers, along with Ego, were co-created by Lee. Lee also makes an appearance in the music video for the song "Guardians' Inferno". In Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Lee appears as an annoyed neighbor named Gary who, after witnessing Spider-Man mistakenly accosting an innocent civilian says to him, "Don't make me come down there, you punk!" His other neighbor, Marjorie, greets him, asking about his welfare, while he does the same to her, asking about her mother. In Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Lee appears as a servant to the Grandmaster on Sakaar who cuts Thor's hair. In Black Panther (2018), Lee appears as a patron of a casino in Busan, South Korea, and takes T'Challa's won, but unclaimed casino tokens. In Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Lee appears as the driver of Peter Parker's school bus. When the students on the bus watch Ebony Maw's ship arriving, the driver says, "What's the matter with you kids? You never seen a spaceship before?". In Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Lee appears as a pedestrian whose car is shrunk by the Wasp. He remarks, "Well the '60s were fun, but now I'm paying for it". In Captain Marvel (2019), Lee makes a posthumous appearance as himself, riding on a subway train and reading his lines from the screenplay for the film Mallrats. When he sees Carol Danvers, he smiles at her, and she smiles back. Although Lee did not create Danvers, the film's Captain Marvel, he co-created the first incarnation of the character in Marvel Comics. The Marvel Studios logo at the beginning of the film also pays tribute to Lee, with his MCU cameo appearances being incorporated into the logo and ending with the message "Thank You Stan". In Avengers: Endgame (2019), Lee makes a posthumous appearance, digitally de-aged as a car driver in 1970, driving past army base Camp Lehigh and shouting, "Hey man, make love, not war!" The scene also features Lee alongside a digital re-creation of his wife, Joan Boocock Lee, as she appeared in the year 1970. His dog, Charlotte Lee is also referenced in name under Scott Lang's name on the Wall of the Vanished that Scott Lang sees. This was the final MCU and Marvel film overall to feature a Stan Lee cameo. In Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), while Lee does not appear in the film, the film's screenplay indicates that a Lee look-a-like was intended to make a cameo appearance at the end of the film when Peter Parker unsuccessfully attempts to reconnect with Michelle "MJ" Jones and Ned Leeds. In an Easter egg by the film's VFX team, Lee's birthday is used as the number plate of a taxi cab in the film's bridge fight scene. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), James Gunn originally intended the character Lambshank to be voiced by and modeled after Lee. Following Lee's death, Lambshank was played by Gunn. In Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), Lee makes a posthumous appearance on an ad for Stanlee Steamer, parody of Stanley Steemer. The ad shows an image of Lee himself, the catchphrase "Your friendly neighborhood cleaner" (referring to the catchphrase for Spider-Man), as well as displaying his birth year 1922. Lee also appears in archival footage used for a montage in the ending credits for the film.
Television Lee appears in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1 episode, "T.R.A.C.K.S.", originally broadcast February 4, 2014. In his cameo he is portrayed as a kindly older man who sympathizes with the elaborate cover story Simmons had created. Additionally his picture appears in the first episode of the web series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot (which serves as a spin-off to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). His picture is seen in minute 03:10 in a box carried by Phil Coulson. Lee appears in the Agent Carter season 1 episode "The Blitzkrieg Button", originally broadcast on January 27, 2015. In the cameo, Lee asks Howard Stark if he can borrow his newspaper to read the sports section. Lee cameos in various seasons of Marvel's Netflix television series through still-photograph as a police officer of the New York City Police Department. Lee cameos in Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher. In Iron Fist, he is identified as having assumed an identity as Captain Irving Forbush. With the exception of Daredevil, Lee did not have a hand in the creation of any of these characters. In season 2 of Jessica Jones, Irving Forbush became an attorney with mention of "Forbush and Associates". In Luke Cage season 2 episode "Can't Front on Me", Luke Cage passes a billboard with Lee's image, depicting a legal advertisement for Forbush stating, "Call Forbush… get what you deserve." Lee appears in the Hulu television series Runaways during a season 1 episode as a limousine driver for the titular team. Lee did not have a hand in the creation of the Runaways. Lee appears in the Freeform series Cloak & Dagger during a season 1 episode in a painting modeled after Andy Warhol's famous The Shot Marilyns. Lee did not have a hand in the creation of Cloak and Dagger. A tribute to Lee appears in the seventh episode of the Disney+ series WandaVision (2021) where license plate of a car belonging to Wanda Maximoff has the number "122822" representing Lee's birth date, December 28, 1922, according to the show's director Matt Shakman. It is then repeated in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) but this time, as a taxi number. In the first episode of Loki, one of the portraits within the TVA's courtroom has six people lined up, one of them resembling Stan Lee, which suggests that he was an agent to the TVA. Stan is referenced in the Disney+ series What If...? episode, "What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?" as Stanley's Pizza Parlor is referenced as a delivery hat and jacket appears on Bruce Banner's desk at Culver University. This is referring to a deleted scene in The Incredible Hulk with Banner disguised as a deliverer for Stanley's pizza.
Non-MCU films X-Men films
In X-Men (2000), Lee appears as a hot dog stand vendor on the beach when Robert Kelly emerges naked onshore after escaping from Magneto. In X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Lee and Chris Claremont appear as two of Jean Grey's neighbors in the opening scenes set 20 years in the past. Lee, credited as "Waterhose Man", is watering the lawn when Jean telekinetically redirects the water from the hose into the air. In Deadpool (2016), Lee appears as himself, working as an MC at a strip club and announcing an offscreen character: "Give it up for Chastity!". Lee did not have a hand in the creation of the character Deadpool.