Stan Lee had more cameos in Sony’s Into the Spider-Verse than you’d think

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

If you're like me, it took everything you had not to burst into tears when Stan Lee arrived for a heartfelt cameo in Sony's SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. After all, it had only been a few short weeks since the legendary Marvel frontman had passed away that directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman's animation had made its stunning theatrical debut. To this very day, I'll never forget how I heard a distinct number of sniffles rippling through the theater as an animated Lee graced the screen.

Now, if you thought that all of those emotions were behind you, and that you're totally prepared to witness Lee's Spider-Verse cameo upon a another viewing tear-free, I've got some news for you, True Believers … the Marvel mogul had more cameos in the film than you might think.

Recently, Nick Kondo, and animator on the film, posted a video that reveals a single-frame cameo of Lee as a train passenger in SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. In fact, you can only spot the Marvel icon if you slow the movie down, and then track the passengers aboard the subway frame-by-frame.

You can check out Kondo's reveal of the cameo below:

I'm not going to lie, the above video kind of blew my mind, earlier this morning. Maybe it's because I had yet to drink my morning coffee that the clip hit me so hard, but as an animation connoisseur (shoutout to my retired 'Ink & Pixel' column, y'all), I'm a little disappointed that I'd missed it.

Of course, the train sequence isn't Lee's only cameo in the film. As co-director Bob Perschietti had previously pointed out while speaking with Collider, “The easiest to spot, because you don’t have to stop the film, is when Peter and Miles are on the ground on the sidewalk, after they’d fallen from the train, there’s a dog who smells them with a guy who walks over them. That’s Stan again. On his way home from work,” he said. “But then I will say, there are many, many train scenes. Subway shots. If you just pause, he’s in a lot of them. That guy is all over New York. He’s a busy man.”

To catch all of Stan Lee's cameos and so much more in Sony's SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, be sure to pick the movie up when it hits DVD and Blu-ray on March 19th. That way, you can disect the film frame-by-frame, in the hope of discovering even more delightful Easter eggs and mind-blowing secrets about Marvel's award-winning animated feature.