Sam’s Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is one of the best superhero trilogies ever made despite how the trilogy ended up concluding. Starring Tobey Maguire, the first film was a great time for fans of superhero films and audiences alike. The second one was a goddamn masterpiece and is definitely one of the greatest superhero films of all time. The films saw some cameos from none other than Stan Lee who unfortunately passed away recently.
As we all know, the late Marvel legend has made numerous cameos in Marvel films from both Disney, Sony and Fox. His cameos in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films were pretty fun, standing out as something really special. However, it looks like Raimi initially didn’t want him to make any cameos..
While speaking with THR, Raimi revealed that he initially didn’t want Lee to appear in Spider-Man. He explained how Marvel head Avi Arad wanted him to put Lee in the film to which Raimi was not a big fan doing at the time. He revealed:
“I got the job for Spider-Man in 1999. And [Marvel head] Avi Arad said, ‘I want you to put Stan in the movie.’ And I was like, ‘No. I know Stan, and he can’t act.’ And Avi was, ‘I want him in the movie. We did it for X-Men, we’re doing it here.’ Now imagine you’re a minor director in England doing Macbeth and you’re told, ‘Put the writer in the play.’ It sounds absurd. ‘Fine, you want Shakespeare in the play, I’ll put Shakespeare in the play.’ Now it’s one of my favorite parts in the movie.”
The Stan Lee cameo in the first two Spider-Man films were pretty cool despite them being pretty brief. However, if it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have gotten that pretty profound cameo in the third film which can be argued to be among his best cameos but it sadly had to be in the worst film in the series. Whatever it is, his cameos will always be recognized by anyone and his work will always be remembered.
Source: THR
