Stan Lee may have passed away back in 2018, but his legacy of popping up in Marvel movies lives on. The comic book co-creator was featured as a very stealthy Easter egg in the Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage trailer, which dropped earlier today–but the moment passed by so quickly it was easy to miss. Give the trailer another watch to see if you can spot him.
If you need some help, here’s a shot of the moment. As Eddie (and Venom) make their way into Mrs. Chen’s convenience store, you can clearly see Stan’s face as the cover of a magazine on the symbiotic duo’s right hand side.
Ironically, Lee had no hand in the creation of Venom, who was a joint effort between David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane, or Carnage, who was created by Michelinie and Mark Bagley. He did, however, famously co-create Spider-Man alongside Steve Ditko, and while the Sony Venom movies have yet to officially intersect with the Spider-Man universe or the MCU in any way, the possibility isn’t off the table–especially given the buzz surrounding Spider-Man: No Way Home and the way it seems to be bringing the pre-MCU Spider-Man films into the multiversal fold with cameos from old favorites like Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock.
Another blast from the past in Easter egg form was the logo of the Daily Bugle as seen in the trailer, which was lifted directly from the original Sam Raimi film trilogy. You can see Detective Mulligan reading the paper with a front page article about Carnage himself, Cletus Kasady, in his office. As he closes the paper, you can even glimpse what seems to be another paper pinned to the wall with a headline that could read “Avengers Lost To Nightmare.”
There’s a small chance this is a deliberate nod to the Marvel comics villain Nightmare, who was one of the front running theories alongside Mephisto for a WandaVision big bad. Obviously, that never panned out, but some fans have already begun theorizing that Nightmare may feature in the upcoming Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, which is being directed by Raimi. Of course, with so little to work from at the moment it’s impossible to say for sure–and, as far as we know, the Venom film franchise does not actually intersect with the MCU (yet), meaning there are no Avengers in that particular universe to speak of. Still, anything is possible and it’s never too early to start theorizing.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage hits theaters on September 24.