Captain Marvel: 20 Easter Eggs And References Explained
16. Stan Lee's Mallrats Cameo
Gramercy Pictures
Captain Marvel is the first live action Marvel film to have released since the passing of legendary comics creator Stan Lee back in November, and it made sure to pay tribute to the figure right from the very get go.
The usual Marvel ident was replaced with one that highlighted all of Stan the Man's cameos, before fading to black with a simple message that read "Thank you Stan." It was a touching tribute, but one made even better by the late writer's cameo, which came in the midst of the Skrull chase in the film's opening act.
While Danvers is on the LA subway searching for her Skrull attacker, she scans the carriage from person to person, figuring out who is human and who isn't. There, she finds Stan, who's actually sat reading the script for Kevin Smith's Mallrats, which released in 1995. She gives him a glance and a smile of approval, making this yet another emotional cameo from everyone's favourite Generalissimo.
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.
