Stan Lee cameos have been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the beginning. While it’s almost cliche at this point, seeing one of the main creator’s of the Marvel Universe make a quick appearance in movies based on his creations is a bright spot for this viewer.
According to Comic Book Movie, there may be more to his appearances in these films than people realize. A popular theory among fans is that Stan Lee is playing the same character in each movie because he is Uatu the Watcher. The Watchers are beings in the Marvel Universe that watch and record events in the galaxy, recording it for posterity. While Stan is not Uatu, one of the post credit scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 confirms that he is indeed A Watcher. Kevin Feige had this to say.
“Yes, we always thought it would be fun. Stan Lee clearly exists, you know, above and apart from the reality of all the films. So the notion that he could be sitting there on a cosmic pit stop during the jump gate sequence in Guardians was something very fun – James had that idea and we shot that cameo and loved it so much, you know, you see it a couple of times in the movie. It wasn’t in for a long time and we put it back in towards the end of the process where he references that time he was a Federal Express agent – we thought it would be fun to put that in there because that really says, so wait a minute, he’s this same character who’s popped up in all these films.”
Casual fans may not catch on to the importance of this revelation. The Watchers are mainly affiliated with the Fantastic Four. Based on the licensing deals Marvel made in the 90’s to get out of bankruptcy, 20th Century Fox ended up with the Fantastic Four movie rights. Those rights included characters that got their start in that comic, such as Galactus and The Silver Surfer. Recently, it was revealed that Marvel and Fox had made a trade, Ego the Living Planet rights went to Marvel in exchange for Negasonic Teenage Warhead. So it begs to question, was another trade made for this scene in the new movie to occur? Could this possibly be a sign that Fox has relinquished their rights to Fantastic Four or some of their ancillary characters? Time will tell.
So what do you think? Are you happy to see Marvel confirm that the Stan Lee cameos tie in to the fan theory about Lee being a Watcher? Do you think this is a one off reference to The Watchers or a sign of what’s to come in the MCU? Sound off in the comments section below.
Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.
SOURCE: Comic Book Movie
