Stan Lee's impact is everywhere. The late Marvel Comics icon is being mourned by just about everyone, including the cast and crew of The Gifted. The Fox TV show is based on Marvel Comics characters in the X-Men universe. Season 2, Episode 7 aired November 13 -- the day after Stan Lee's passing -- and the series paid tribute to Lee with this end shot:
Stan Lee always has a fun little cameo in Marvel projects, and The Gifted was no exception. His cameo came right away at the start of the series in 2017. Showrunner Matt Nix told The Hollywood Reporter it was not easy to get Lee in for that brief scene:
We moved heaven and earth to get him in there. The morning we got him, one of our co-executive producers texted me in the morning and told me Stan Lee was in town for a comic book convention. We went to the convention to get him on the show, and they told us, "He flies out at four. If you can shoot him in two hours, then you can have Stan Lee in the show." We didn't have that location. We didn't have anything. We were just like, "OK, it's a bar? Do anything you can. We have to get the bar. We have to get the actor out of bed and bring him down here to put the costume on. We have to shoot the scene in 20 minutes!" We went down there, we shot the scene, Stan Lee was like, "Thanks very much!" Then he rode off to get on a plane. That's the kind of thing where I think people sometimes underestimate the degree to which we, who make the show, are just another group of fanboys trying to make something happen by the skin of our teeth.
Here's how the cameo scene in question turned out:
Short but sweet! The Gifted cast and crew also got to spend a little hang time with Stan Lee, and they are forever grateful. The official show account shared a larger version of the cast photo used at the end of last night's episode:
The Gifted stars Stephen Moyer (True Blood) as Reed Strucker, and he shared his own photo with Stan Lee after the news of Lee's death spread on November 12:
The Gifted co-star Sean Teale shared his own photo with Stan Lee:
It is amazing to think of how many films, TV series, comics and other media have a direct link to Stan Lee. The Gifted is connected to the X-Men film series -- which also includes Deadpool and Logan -- and they are all connected to the Marvel Comics characters co-created by Lee.
Marvel Studios tends to get the most attention, thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the Avengers stars clearly weren't the only ones to reach out with tributes after Stan Lee's death. Members of the Fox family like The Gifted, and Sony's Marvel Universe including Venom, also thanked Lee for making all of this happen.
Marvel Entertainment also posted a lovely four-minute video recapping Stan Lee's legacy. And if you're interested in reliving more of Stan Lee's Marvel cameos, here are a few of his best.
The Gifted Season 2 continues Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox. Check out what else is ahead in our fall 2018 TV premiere guide.
