Marvel fans the world over are still reeling from the sad loss of the legend that is Stan Lee, who passed away yesterday at the age of 95. As well as admirers of the comic book universe he created pouring out their love for the guy, the stars of the Marvel movies based on his and others’ work have taken to social media to pay their respects to the great man.
This includes Venom‘s Tom Hardy. Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote weren’t actually created by Lee – they were the work of David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane – but Stan The Man nevertheless turned up for one of his beloved customary cameos in last month’s movie based on the character. That’s where Hardy met him and, in honor of Lee, the British actor shared a snap of himself with the writer on Instagram, captioning it: “With the greatest of respect.”
If you’ll recall, Lee appeared in the penultimate scene of Venom. As Eddie walks away from his ex-girlfriend Anne’s house, he bumps into a kindly civilian who tells him to not give up on her – “either of you.” The implication is that Lee’s character knows that Brock has a gooey alter ego, through how he knows this is unclear. If we take Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘s cameo as canon for all Marvel movies, however, we can infer that Lee’s always playing an agent of the Watchers who’s keeping an eye on superheroes across the multiverse.
Venom also has the honor of featuring the last Stan Lee movie cameo prior to his death. That said, we’re quite certain that we have more on the way from films that were previously shot. Kevin Feige wouldn’t confirm which MCU outings we can expect to see the icon in – citing Lee’s love of surprises as the reason why – but we do know he’s definitely in Avengers 4.