Marvel Studios Won’t Digitally Resurrect Stan Lee
File under: Phew.
Marvel Studios is on record saying they won’t employ digital technology to resurrect actors who have passed on.
And that includes Stan Lee.
Stan Was The Man
Citing Yahoo News, ComicBook.com’s Cameron Bonomolo reported:
- Marvel Studios will not use digital technology to involve deceased actors in their films, according to executive vice president of production Victoria Alonso. Former Captain America star Chris Evans called out this practice when producers of Vietnam War-era action-drama Finding Jack announced plans to digitally recreate James Dean, who died in 1955, for a decades-later posthumous appearance in the film, reportedly with the full support of Dean’s family. But Disney-owned Marvel Studios — whose de-aging technology shaved decades off stars like Michael Douglas in Ant-Man and Samuel L. Jackson in Captain Marvel — has no plans to use that same groundbreaking technology to recreate late actors, regardless of date of death.
- “It’s a little bit of a philosophical and moral decision that is always going to be a studio-level decision,” said Industrial Light & Magic VFX supervisor Craig Hammack, who worked on Captain Marvel. “It is something that we’re all aware of, because the possibilities are coming and our hope is that it doesn’t happen in an irresponsible way. Personally, I don’t want to see something that’s not the performance of the person represented as the person.”
- “Stan Lee is not replaceable. So we will never try,” Alonso told Miami Latin News when asked who might take over Lee’s cameo duties following his death. “That is the legend, the man, we will never try to replace him. Other people will come around, and then you have someone as phenomenally creative as [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige, but there’s only one Stan Lee.”
The Right Call
I think it’s a slippery slope in either direction, in terms of using the tech or disagreeing with family. But I am very thankful they won’t be bringing Stan Lee back.
As Alonso said, “There’s only one Stan Lee.”