Stan Lee’s Name & Likeness Licensed For Return To Marvel Films

The iconic comic book writer and publisher Stan Lee gained a reputation for making cameo appearances in Marvel Cinematic Universe films before his death, and now Marvel has reached a deal with brands POW! Entertainment and Genius Brands International to license his name and likeness for film and TV projects, as well as merchandising and Disney parks experience.

Lee co-founded POW! in 2001, but he had legally clashed with the company before his 2018 death. He filed a suit against two co-founders of the company and accused them of forging his signature in an agreement to make his likeness exclusive to them. The suit was dropped before his death.

Some fans have worried that this means they will be forcing digital reconstructions of Lee into new Marvel films, which would certainly be a little off-putting, but there’s no telling what may come down the pike thanks to this deal yet. If they just stick to using archival footage of Lee in parks and other contexts, it would be pretty innocuous, but the companies who sold the license seem to want to take it as far as it can go before putting a bad taste in fans’ mouths.

The CEO of Genius Brands, Andy Heyward, simply hinted at this idea with his statement, “It really ensures that Stan, through digital technology and archival footage and other forms, will live in the most important venue, the Marvel movies and Disney theme parks,” Heyward said he also referred to the agreement as a “broad deal.” He also said that the use of Lee’s likeness “will be welcomed” if they do it “with taste and class.”

Digital reconstructions are a rapidly-growing technology that companies are sure to make more and more use of to preserve the looks of iconic celebrities. One recent interesting use of this technology was in Kendrick Lamar‘s music video for The Heart Part V.

The video features Lamar performing the song, and throughout it, his face morphs into celebrities like OJ Simpson, Jussie Smollett and Kanye West, as well as figures who have died, Kobe Bryant and Nipsey Hussle. The effects were done by DEEP VOODO, a deep fake studio founded by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.