We all know that the big brains behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe like to plan ahead. They've supposedly got movies lined up through 2020, always thinking ahead to the future. That's why it should come as no surprise that they've already figured out and shot the next four Stan Lee cameos. What is surprising is the director who spent the day filming them: James Gunn. According to Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson, Gunn was the man behind the camera for all four cameos.
James shot four cameos with Stan in one day. James was texting me the frame. 'Does this look right? Does this look good?'
Scott Derrickson has been doing plenty of press lately for this magician movie called Doctor Strange, and in an interview with Entertainment Weekly revealed that James Gunn had recently finished filming the next four Stan Lee cameos. The fan favorite director took a break from working on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to spend the day with Stan Lee framing a bunch of goofy cameos. He also consulted Derrickson for some quick advice on shots -- it's probably hard to frame a shot so that it fits perfectly into a movie you have no involvement with.
The cameos themselves could be anything from Stan Lee being a waiter to just a snarky guy standing on the street. Just because Gunn filmed them doesn't mean that they will be done in his particular voice. These cameos are typically pretty general and can typically slide into place anywhere they are needed. I have to imagine it was a fun day on set, making Stan Lee dress up in different costumes and riffing different jokes with the 93-year old.
Now let's get to trying to guess which Phase 3 movies these cameos are for. There are more than four movies left for this particular phase, and a chunk of them haven't even started filming. It doesn't make much sense to film a cameo that doesn't even have a finished screenplay. In that case, we can probably rule out Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, and the still untitled Avengers 4. Doctor Strange comes out in a week, so that's out of the running too. By the process of elimination that just leaves us Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Avengers: Infinity War. Ragnarok, Spider-Man, and Guardians 2 have wrapped production, so more likely than not, each of them were one of the cameos. That just makes it a toss up between Black Panther and Infinity War.
Regardless, Stan Lee will return in at least four more movies. You can see him much sooner though in Doctor Strange, which hits theaters on November 4 next week.
