Sam Raimi Originally Didn't Want a Stan Lee Cameo in SPIDER-MAN and They Pitched a THOR Movie Together
It turns out that Stan Lee’s career in movie cameos may have been cut short had director Sam Raimi originally got his way and not included him in his Spider-Man movie.
The filmmaker revealed in an interview with THR that he was initially against the idea of Lee appearing in the film because he felt that Lee couldn’t act! This was in 2002 and Spider-Man was made in a time when Marvel’s comic book movies were in their infancy. We had no idea at the time that comic book films would explode and take over Hollywood.
Had Lee not showed up in Spider-Man, his cameo streak would have ended really early on! Thankfully Raimi ended up agreeing to Lee’s cameo and now he’s happy that he did it, but he had a very different attitude when he was developing the film. Raimi shares the story below:
"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."
Well, I’m sure glad that everything worked out and that Lee made it into the film! In case you forgot what Stan Lee’s cameo in the film was you can check it out below.
Before that all happened, though, after Raimi’s Darkman movie came out in the early 90s, Lee contacted Raimi about working on and pitching a Thor movie. Raimi recalls:
"After I did Darkman, Stan Lee called me and was like, 'Hey, kid, I liked your movie.' He took me out to lunch and said we should work together. I said I'd like to make a movie about Thor. We worked together writing treatments and took it to Fox and pitched it. And they said, 'Absolutely no. Comic books don't make good movies.' This was in 1991."
I would have absolutely loved to see Sam Raimi make a Thor movie in the 90s! I can’t help but think that movie would have been awesome. I would love to see what his vision for that movie was! I wonder if there was any concept art drawn up to go along with the treatment they wrote.
I also love how close-minded the studio executives were back then about comic book movies. They had no vision or imagination!
Would you have liked to see Sam Raimi make a Thor movie in the 90s?