WARNING: Potentially MAJOR SPOILERS for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 follow in this article.
Stan Lee has appeared in every single Marvel Studios movie and fans have often theorised that there may be more to these appearances than meet the eye. Of course, the legendary comic book creator has been showing up in these adaptations since X-Men, so they're done more for fun than anything else, but Kevin Feige has now shared some very interesting details on these surprise cameos.
The theory mentioned above is that Lee is actually Uatu the Watcher, and while that isn't the case, Feige confirmed that Lee's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 appearance does indeed reference that.
"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."
Here's where things get reallyspoilery, though. According to Screen Rant, Lee can be seen in the sequel talking to a group of Watchers who reportedly look very similar to the comic book counterparts.
This is interesting for another reason. The Watchers have classically been Fantastic Four characters and with both them and Ego the Living Planet now part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's hard not to wonder if Marvel Studios may have quietly regained the rights to that franchise or possibly just some of their greatest villains. Who knows, maybe Galactus will show up in Avengers: Infinity War...