10 Fascinating Facts About Captain Marvel (2019)

by Ewan Paterson

1. Stan Lee's Cameo Isn't Like His Others

Stan Lee Mallrats
Gramercy Pictures

Captain Marvel marked the second posthumous cameo of legendary comic book creator Stan Lee, and it may have been one of his best ever.

Lee passed away late last year having masterminded Marvel's golden era alongside the likes of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita and several others. As the years progressed, he went on to cameo in dozens of Marvel films, TV shows and video games, appearing in each instalment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe starting with 2008's Iron Man.

It was revealed the other year that Lee had recorded his remaining cameos with James Gunn, with Captain Marvel presumably one of them. Just as the film flexes its nineties roots, it also includes a distinctly nineties cameo from Marvel fans' generalissimo, with the writer reading the script for Kevin Smith's Mallrats on the LA subway.

During that scene, Lee can be seen reciting his lines from that film. Breaking character for just one second, Carol acknowledges Lee and cracks a smile, providing a heartwarming moment when Lee's cameos are mostly humorous. According to Boden and Fleck (via Mashable), this was intentional, saying:

"Instead of just the pure laugh 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 of what the audience is feeling, and we allowed that to happen."

It made for a lovely moment, and with Lee's final cameo set to come in Avengers: Endgame, we can only hope it hits a similarly heartwarming note.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.