WARNING: The following article contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.
So please only read ahead after you’ve seen the majestic animated cinematic wonder.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse will make you feel many things.
Its funny, dramatic, thrilling and audacious, but there’s one scene in the film that will reduce viewers to a quivering, emotional wreck.
The scene in question is the cameo of Stan Lee, the co-creator of Spider-Man who passed away at the age of 95 last month, in which Lee plays a store clerk that gives Miles Morales his first Spider-Man costume.
This obviously gives Stan Lee’s cameo extra poignancy, according to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’s directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman.
Stan Lee recorded his cameo a month after his wife died
“We recorded Stan Lee a year ago in his office. We went to him. He was the only performer we went to. He could have been anywhere and we would have shown up,” recalls Perischetti.
“We designed that cameo to be of great importance to our movie’s story. We didn’t want to put Stan Lee in as a bus driver in this case. We wanted him to do something very important in the movie, which is essentially giving Miles his Spider-suit.”
“It is not a real one. But he is a gatekeeper that gives him the totem and says some very important things before cracking a joke.”
But while the cameo was recorded over a year before Stan Lee’s death, it was actually taped just a month after the death of his wife Joan Boocock had passed at the age of 95 on July 6, 2017.
“The other level of it was that when we first recorded him his wife had passed away a month before that,” says Ramsay. “So even the original recording, which is about the mourning of the passing of a friend is colored by that.”
“That is just another instance of this movie having so many levels of meaning and story, which ricochet off each other. It is really wild. The response has been overwhelming.”
As a result of his death, the reaction to Stan Lee’s cameo has drastically evolved.
“When we started showing it 6 months ago people were excited to see it. But after he passed away the entire feeling in the theater changed,” insists Rothman.
“With the tribute to both Stan Lee and Steve Ditko the film kind of represents a passing of the torch to all of the people that have been inspired by them and will author Spider-Man stories in the future. We wrote the lines very much inspired by him, his work on Spider-Man, and his world view.”
“It is a hopeful line, too,” adds Ramsay. “He starts out mourning a lost friend. But by the end of it he is like giving it over to a new Spider-Man, saying, ‘It doesn’t fit now but eventually it will all work out.’ He becomes another mentor for Miles just with that one line.”
As you can imagine the trio of directors only had kind words and praise for Lee and his work, and they insist that the continued resonance of the character and the interest in its films is only because “the idea of Spider-Man is so strong.”
“The concept of a superhero being a normal person and having all the concerns and problems of a normal person. That makes him completely relatable. It is something that people gravitate to when the world feels like a confusing and complicated place and you look for strength and for someway to overcome these things,” explains Persichetti.
“I find it reassuring to see that we have all of these resources and strengths and capabilities in ourselves. Even when you have your problems you can draw on that. And that is the core idea in Spider-Man.”
“I think that is why he has been so popular in the last 60 years and own movie proves that in the shape of Miles Morales, who couldn’t be more different than Peter and takes on the mantle of being Spider-Man and is just as powerful.”
But why is Spider-Man still so popular?
“Kids across the world dress up Spider-Man around the world,” says Ramsey. “There is something in Stan Lee’s creation that people of all ages, wherever they are dress up like him. Firstly because the character has a mask, but because he is relatable, has a normal frame, isn’t overburdened with muscle, so you can project yourself into it.”
“There is something about that combination of things that makes him so strong. We thought of it for our movie is a myth that has captivated our contemporary world.”
“It is as powerful a myth as something that might have motivated people a thousand years ago, myths travel, the stories can change from culture to culture and that was part of the premise for this movie, is that the story can change and be retold and still remain ostensibly the same.”
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is now in theaters.
