SPOILER ALERT: I don’t know why I’m bothering with this, but if you want to avoid SPOILERS for ‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’, you may want to turn back.
Stan Lee is essentially the most famous ambassador from the world of comics to the mainstream. Originally, when he popped up for his signature cameos in films like ‘X-Men’ and ‘Spider-Man’, those celluloid appearances were Easter Eggs for die hard nerds to gently elbow each other in the theater when they spotted him. We’re living in a whole new world nowadays, though. EVERYBODY knows who he is and when he pops up in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ or even one of various Marvel cartoon series, fans immediately recognize him and the cheering starts. Back in the day, Lee himself would only agree to appear in a movie if he’d actually created the character(s) featured. But James Gunn managed to convince him to pop up in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’— a comic concept that Lee had nothing to do with– and from there, it just became a requirement for him to grace the screen of any Marvel movie.
Now, it appears he will make a cameo appearance in a movie from rivals DC and Warner Brothers– ‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’. Though the movie isn’t out yet, early reviews state that it follows along the lines of ‘The LEGO Movie’ and ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ and even, to an extent ‘The Incredibles 2’ and is a meta-to-the-max parody/deconstruction of the superhero film genre. And the requisite Stan Lee cameo has become such a staple that it’s fair game for this flick.
According to Variety‘s review of the film, it seems that in ‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’ an animated Stan “The Man” appears and says:
“This is Stan Lee — dig my subtle cameo! This is a DC movie? I gotta get outta here!”
‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’ has already blurred the lines between DC and Marvel (by way of Fox), not to mention the line between an R and G rating with their ads that compare their villain Slade (a.k.a. Deathstroke) to ‘Deadpool’. I guess nothing is off limits!
‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’ opens this weekend on July 27.
