Marvel boss recalls final meeting with Stan Lee: ‘Maybe he knew time was running out’

Comic book writer Lee, who was involved in the creation of several Marvel superheroes, died on November 12 at the age of 95. He had made cameo appearances in all MCU movies and continued to be engaged with fans of his work right up until his death.

Feige met with him shortly before he passed, and said in a new interview that Lee was more “wistful” than usual.

“I went to his house to see him, and he reminisced about the cameos,” he said.

“We were talking about what was coming up, always looking to the future.

“Did he know that his time was running out? I don’t know.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he added: “In hindsight, he was slightly more wistful than I’d seen him before.

“He talked about the past more than I had ever heard him talk about the past. So maybe on some level, he knew.

“When I sat down by his chair in our last meeting, the very first thing he said was: ‘I know you want me to star in the next movie, but I have to just stick to the cameos. You’ll have to leave the starring roles to the other actors. I’m sorry’.

“God forbid he would start to overshadow the hero. That was something a character like Stan Lee could easily do.”

Lee had filmed his cameo for next year’s Avengers 4, and is also believed to have shot an appearance for Captain Marvel.

He was last seen on-screen in Venom; not part of the MCU, but a Marvel-born character nonetheless.

His wife, Joan Boocock Lee, had passed away in July 2017 – also aged 95.

The pair had met while working way back in the 1940s.