WARNING: Minor spoilers lie ahead for non-important plot points of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.’ If you don’t want to read these, then now is the best time for you to turn away!
A popular fan theory has been bopping around the internet for some time now that Stan Lee’s awesomely-random cameos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s films are all connected. Usually, the easiest way that fans can think for that to be done is by placing Lee as cosmic Marvel Comics character Uatu, The Watcher. Now, during the ongoing press tour for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2,’ Marvel chief Kevin Feige has essentially confirmed this theory as the truth!
Uatu is from a race of cosmic beings called The Watchers, who have sworn to view and record the events of all the races in the galaxy, but never to interfere. The character served as the narrative basis for the ‘What If?’ alternate-universe story series of Marvel Comics that have appeared in various runs from as early as the 1970s.
So, it would make sense for all of Lee’s characters, who are present and “watching” the events of the various MCU films unfold but never directly interfering in the major events, to fit into this mold.
Stan “The Man” actually appears twice in ‘Guardians Vol. 2,’ both as the same Watcher character: once during the film when Rocket, Yondu, and Kraglin are jumping quickly from world to world via hundreds of fast-travel gates, and again in one of the several mid- and post-credits scenes. Both scenes depict Lee and a few other Watcher characters, with the first scene showing Lee recall the story of how he appeared as a FedEx delivery man – the scene audiences saw play out in ‘Captain America: Civil War.’ Indeed, in the credits for ‘Guardians Vol. 2,’ Lee is actually listed as “The Watchers’ Informant.”
As Feige said when asked about Stan’s cameos existing in an over-arching Watcher-style character:
“Yes, we always thought it would be fun. Stan Lee clearly exists, you know, above and apart from the reality of all the films. So the notion that he could be sitting there on a cosmic pit stop during the jump gate sequence in Guardians was something very fun – James had that idea and we shot that cameo and loved it so much, you know, you see it a couple of times in the movie. It wasn’t in for a long time and we put it back in towards the end of the process where he references that time he was a Federal Express agent – we thought it would be fun to put that in there because that really says, so wait a minute, he’s this same character who’s popped up in all these films.”
‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2’ opens in US theaters on May 5, 2017.
Tony Schaab loves Star Wars… ♫ something with Staaar Waaars, give me those Staaar Waaars, don’t let them eeeennnddd… ♫ A lover of most things sci-fi and horror, Tony is an author by day and a DJ by night. Come hang out with Tony on Twitter to hear him spew semi-funny nonsense and get your opportunity to finally put him in his place.
