Stan Lee's Biggest Complaint About His Deadpool Cameo

As the founding father of most things Marvel, Stan Lee has appeared in pretty much all of the films tied to the various Marvel characters. And Lee doesn’t have to play silly studio games, meaning he can appear in Sony’s version of The Amazing Spider-Man (as a clueless librarian), in Fox’s X-Men movies, and in the assorted Thor, Hulk and Iron Man movies for Marvel Studios, proper. But Stan has a specific beef with the cameo he recently filmed for Tim Miller’s smash hit, Deadpool. Namely, it didn’t allow him to spend enough time with beautiful strippers.

Warning, the following will contain extremely mild spoilers for Deadpool. You have been warned.

So, Stan Lee has a very brief cameo in the current Deadpool movie. The mighty Marvel mouthpiece plays the MC in a strip club. It’s basically a blink-and-you-missed-it moment, and Stan Lee tells EW that the brevity if the situation is his biggest complaint. Lee says:

I wish I had spent more time in the strip club. They had me in and out too quickly.

Awwwww, Stan Lee’s a dirty old man! I’m kidding. And Stan Lee likely was, as well. But even if he isn’t, at 93 years of age, can you blame the guy for wanting to send more time with beautiful ladies? Film sets can be tedious work spots. On the day that they are shooting in a strip club, you can understand why the extras – even the famous ones like Lee – want to do a few extra takes.

Deadpool tells the origin story of Wade Wilson, the "merc with the mouth" who agrees to undergo controversial experiments to possibly cure his cancer… only, he ends up with super powers, and a vendetta against the people who turned him into a lethal monster. The movie is a massive hit for Fox, earning $241 million in the U.S. and nearly $500 million worldwide. It’s gigantic. Deadpool 2 already has been greenlit, and Stan Lee says he’d be back for another cameo… basically because if it’s Marvel, he's game. Lee tells EW:

Whenever a new movie comes out, I hope they’ll have a spot for me. I get such a kick out of doing it. The fans seem to like it. I’m going to tell you a secret, here’s the reason the movies make so much money: My cameo. A man takes a girl to the movie, right? They’re watching the movie and they bend down to get some popcorn. In so doing, they miss my cameo. Now the movie ends, and they say, ‘My God, we missed Stan’s cameo!’ So what do they do? They run to the box office and buy two more tickets and see it again. That’s why the movies do so well, because of my cameos.

Did you miss Stan Lee’s Deadpool cameo? Buy another ticket, and see the movie again.   

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.