The Origin of Stan Lee’s First Marvel Movie Cameo in ‘X-Men’

The first “X-Men” film, launched in 2000, was additionally the primary of 34 Marvel theatrical movies that includes a cameo by Stan Lee (Lee additionally appeared within the TV film “The Trial of the Incredible Hulk” in 1989). However, as “Transformers” and “X-Men” producer Tom DeSanto defined throughout Thursday’s “A Celebration of Stan Lee’s Life and Legacy” panel, it nearly didn’t occur.

“I was trying to get Stan to do a cameo in ‘X-Men 1,’ and we were shooting up in Toronto and there was always an excuse,” mentioned DeSanto. “So, Stan finally agreed and he said on the phone call he’s like, “Tom, you don’t understand I’m in a lawsuit with Marvel right now.”

“They don’t want me to do that,” added Lee.

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DeSanto relented and responded, “Stan, you are Marvel. This is all gonna pass, everyone is all going to be friends in a year. Come out, do this.”

At the time “X-Men” was filming, Lee hadn’t truly sued Marvel but. But he had signed a brand new contract in 1998 that entitled him to 10 % of the income from motion pictures, tv and different media primarily based on characters he created or co-created, and really shortly after Lee decided that Marvel wasn’t residing as much as that contract. Lee in the end filed a lawsuit in 2002; Marvel settled in 2005 for an undisclosed sum.

But the burgeoning authorized disagreement didn’t find yourself preserving Lee off the “X-Men” set. He confirmed as much as movie that cameo, and appeared briefly as a beach-side sizzling canine vendor in the course of the scene when Senator Kelly walked out of the ocean.

20th Century FoxUnlike later cameos, Lee isn’t the main target of the shot, and he’s straightforward to overlook. He’d get his first “hey look, it’s Stan Lee” cameo in 2002’s “Spider-Man.” That’s partly due to the last-minute means the cameo got here collectively, in line with DeSanto.

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“We had one day of shooting in Los Angeles and this is where Senator Kelly comes out of the water and he’s been transformed, he’s like this jellyfish man but there was no lines of dialogue. But, we created this hotdog vendor for Stan to do. So Stan comes out and literally everybody is super excited, everybody wants a photo, and Stan realizes the impact he has had on all these creatives in the movie world. Before that time there was probably four people – it was me, Kevin (Feige), Joss Whedon, who really knew who Stan was unless you were a fanboy. But Hollywood didn’t see him that way,” added DeSanto.

“So Stan comes out, he’s awesome, does his cameo and as he’s leaving he goes, ‘Hey, Titanic Tom DeSanto, next movie, how about you give me a line?’”

“It’s funny. Everything that Stan did in his life, his cameos were his favorite things,” added Desanto. Which prompts the query: which of these 35 appearances was Stan the Man’s favourite favourite factor? Well, DeSanto mentioned he is aware of the reply to that one too.

“The first time I ever asked him, what’s your favorite cameo?, he told me, “Thor, because I got two scenes.’”

Hard to disagree with him on that.

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