Stan Lee's Captain Marvel cameo is sure to please fans of Kevin Smith and the director/writer himself. Before we go any further, there are SPOILERS for Captain Marvel below, so don't read ahead if you want to go in blind. The Carol Danvers standalone movie begins with a tribute to Lee during the Marvel Studios opening fanfare. Instead of showing superheroes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's all of the iconic Lee and has left some fans in tears before the movie even begins.
While the tribute to Stan Lee is great, it's his Captain Marvel cameo that is really perfect. The cameo takes place after Carol Danvers arrives on Earth and is hunting a shapeshifting Skrull on a commuter train. While looking people up and down, looking for weakness, she finds a man reading a Mallrats script. That man is Lee and he can be heard muttering, "Trust me, true believer," over and over. Brie Larson's Danvers stops for a moment to look at Lee and then gives a smirk.
Mallrats is Kevin Smith's 1995 sophomore effort, which features Stan Lee talking to Jason Lee's Brodie Bruce character, who is a Marvel super fan. The scene is iconic and a piece of comic cinematic history that kept Smith and Lee close friends until the comic legend's death last year. It might very well be the place where the Stan Lee cameo was popularized, which was later cemented in 2000's X-Men. The Captain Marvel cameo was obviously already mapped out and shot before Lee passed away, but it took on a different meaning and was tweaked a little bit after he passed away late last year.
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Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck originally wrote the Stan Lee Captain Marvel cameo to be a fun gag for MCU fans. However, after his death, they made a slight tweak that makes it a little bit sweeter as opposed to just funny. Boden had this to say when talking about how Lee's cameo changed after his death.
"Instead of just the pure laugh that we had, we had a little bit of a smile from Captain Marvel in response to it, and she kind of breaks character for a moment. I think it reflects a little bit what the audience is feeling, and we allowed that to happen."
Kevin Smith has yet to publicly comment on Stan Lee's Captain Marvel cameo, though it undoubtedly brought a tear to his eye. Not only is it a Lee cameo, it's a Smith cameo too, and for anybody that knows the writer/director, it more than likely means the world to him. The director probably knew about the cameo ahead of time, but to see it on the big screen with an audience is an entirely different thing. Smith is currently shooting the long awaited Jay & Silent Bob Reboot in New Orleans. Since Captain Marvel just opened in theaters today, the only place to see the cameo is in theaters. You can head over to Marvel for ticket and theater information.
