Stan Lee, who created and co-created some of the most iconic comic book characters in the history of the medium, passed away in 2018 at the age of 95, but the legendary Marvel Comics writer/editor is set to "return" via AI.
Variety reports that AI audio company ElevenLabs has struck an expansive deal with Stan Lee Universe, the joint venture between Genius Brands International and POW! Entertainment, to add Lee's voice and likeness to its collection of celebrity personality voices and likenesses that companies can license for commercial use.
Users will be able to utilise the digitised voice, created from professional recordings Lee made throughout his career, to create their own content on editorial and commercial levels.
Other actors and personalities whose voices and likenesses are available through ElevenLabs include Michael Caine, Judy Garland, Burt Reynolds, David Hasselhoff and Albert Einstein.
"Stan always believed in meeting his fans where they were: in the pages of a comic, at a convention, or in a quick on-screen cameo,” Chaz Rainey, a lawyer and board member for Stan Lee Universe, said in a statement. “This partnership is a way of continuing that. Fans have always told us that when they read his comics, they hear the words in Stan’s voice, and now, thanks to ElevenLabs, we can make that a reality.”
“As producers, we are used to bringing very different people to the same table to solve hard problems, and that is exactly what this moment requires,” Lori McCreary, who co-founded production company Revelations with Morgan Freeman, added. “Technology companies and the entertainment industry need to work together to create AI systems that respect consent, protect name, image, and likeness rights, and preserve the value of human creativity. If we do that well, we won’t just keep up with technology, we will help shape it.”
The use of AI in entertainment - especially in this context - continues to be a hot-button topic, and, as you might expect, this announcement has been met with a largely negative response.
In related news, a documentary exploring Lee's final years has found a home at Osmosis Global. Stan Lee: The Final Chapter was directed by Lee’s former assistant Jon Bolerjack, and edited down from hundreds of hours of footage he shot before Lee’s passing.
It's been well documented that Lee endured a challenging time prior to his death, with allegations of elder abuse arising as various people vied for control of his care and estate.
“Witnessing the treatment that Stan endured during those final years, especially at his age, really changes you,” said Bolerjack. “The people around him believed they were untouchable, and I felt a responsibility to document what was happening. It took ten years to finish this film, but sharing the truth about those years is something I owed to Stan and to his fans.”