Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 featured a memorable Stan Lee cameo that confirmed a long-standing fan theory about the characters played by the comic book icon. Now, director James Gunn has confirmed that it was those precise theories that inspired the role he created for Lee in the second chapter of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.
After separating from the rest of the team in the first half of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Rocket and Groot find themselves being held captive by a band of Ravagers who rebelled against former leader Yondu. Fortunately, the trio was able to destroy the Ravagers' vessel and commandeer a spacecraft before setting a course to rescue Peter Quill from his father, Ego. Along the way, the group passes by a planet where Stan Lee could be seen in a spacesuit while recounting one of his adventures on Earth to The Watchers.
In the comics, The Watchers are celestial beings who serve as the monitors of the multiverse. As such, fans had developed a theory suggesting all of the characters played by Lee in Marvel films over the years were actually the same person, who may have been transported to various locations by The Watchers in order to report his findings to them. The aforementioned sequence in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had seemingly confirmed this theory to be true, considering Lee's character was recalling his time as a federal express employee in Captain America: Civil War. In response to a fan Twitter post thanking Gunn for making Lee a canonically recognized informant of The Watchers, the filmmaker confirmed that he stole the idea from those exact fan theories because he thought they were hilarious.
The Watchers are set to play an important role in Marvel Studios' What If...?, an animated anthology series exploring what might have happened had vital moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfolded differently. The Batman and Westworld star Jeffrey Wright will provide the voice of a Watcher named Uatu, a character from the comics designated to monitor events on Earth and its solar system. Slated to debut on Disney Plus in mid-2021, What If...? will see multiple stars from Marvel Studios films reprise their roles over the course of the 10-episode first season, including Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter.
Meanwhile, Gunn will return to direct the third chapter of the Guardians of the Galaxy film series as well as a holiday special featuring the intergalactic team. Unfortunately for fans of the Guardians franchise, the wait for the final installment with the current iteration of the team will be longer than expected on account of Gunn's commitment to Warner Bros.' The Suicide Squad.
Gunn had signed on the write and direct The Suicide Squad not long after being fired from Guardians of the Galaxy by Disney over controversial social media posts he wrote several years before. While Disney would later reinstate Gunn, his work on the DC film will take precedent.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is available to stream on Disney Plus.
Source: James Gunn|Twitter