Stan Lee"s Original Spider-Man Cameo Would Have Changed The Trilogy

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Stan Lee’s cameos in Marvel movies became a tradition and something to look out for in every movie, regardless of the studio in charge of it, and his cameo in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie was originally different, so much so that, had it been kept, it would have changed the trilogy and more. After a bunch of obstacles in the way, Spider-Man finally made his big screen debut in 2002 in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, which explored the origin story of the title character (played by Tobey Maguire), from the moment he was bitten by a genetically engineered spider to his battles against his first enemy, the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe).
Spider-Man was also the second Marvel movie to feature a cameo from Stan Lee, which went on to become a tradition in every Marvel movie, both from the MCU and from other universes (which now are part of the MCU’s multiverse). Stan Lee has a non-speaking cameo in Spider-Man, but that wasn’t the original plan for his brief appearance in it, and his original cameo would have not only changed Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy but also another Marvel superhero universe from another studio: Fox’s X-Men world.
Stan Lee’s Original Spider-Man Cameo Referenced the X-Men

After appearing as a hot dog stand vendor on the beach in X-Men, back in 2000, Stan Lee made his second cameo in a Marvel movie in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. Raimi originally didn’t want Stan Lee to cameo in his movie, telling then-chief of Marvel Studios, Avi Arad, that Lee “couldn’t act”, but Arad insisted that he appeared as they had just done so in X-Men. Raimi eventually agreed and their original idea for Stan Lee’s cameo in Spider-Man linked the movie to the X-Men. In the scene, which was actually filmed and added as a deleted scene on the DVD, Lee played a man selling sunglasses at a stand at the Unity Day Festival, and he had the line “how about these? They wore ‘em in the X-Men!”.
The scene ended up being cut and Stan Lee’s cameo in the final version of Spider-Man was very different. Still set at the festival, Stan Lee was instead briefly seen saving a little girl from being hit by falling debris from the Green Goblin’s attack, and that's his whole cameo. It’s unknown why the scene was cut, as it would have been a fun nod to Lee’s X-Men cameo and a link between both universes, but interestingly enough, this wasn’t the only X-Men reference that almost made it to the final cut of Raimi’s Spider-Man.
Wolverine Was Originally Supposed To Cameo In Spider-Man

Spider-Man doesn’t feature any characters outside the web-slinger's world, but it almost had a cameo from a beloved member of the X-Men: Wolverine. The first X-Men movie introduced Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, marking the beginning of a successful career as the famous mutant, becoming one of the most popular and beloved Marvel characters on the big screen. X-Men was a commercial success, making way for a franchise with sequels, prequels, and spinoffs, and Sony almost took advantage of it and had a Wolverine cameo in Raimi’s Spider-Man. Jackman revealed in an interview with HuffPost in 2013 that his cameo in Spider-Man would have been as simple as Wolverine casually walking through the shot, and he was ready for it as production was taking place in New York and he was there, but it didn’t happen because they couldn’t find the Wolverine suit.
How Stan Lee’s Original Cameo Would Have Changed Raimi’s Spider-Man Universe

Stan Lee’s original cameo in Spider-Man would have changed Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, as it would have confirmed the existence of other superheroes in this universe, while also changing the X-Men universe early on by confirming the existence of Spider-Man. This would have meant that Spider-Man and the X-Men existed in two different universes (from two different studios), and it would have made way for questions about Stan Lee’s cameos and whether or not he plays the same person in both movies (a question that ultimately popped up after his many, many cameos in Marvel movies and made way for a theory about his role in the Marvel universe). These heroes existing in each other’s universe would have also inevitably made the audience question why they don’t team up, which at the time would have been complicated given that they weren’t owned by the same studio. As fun as Stan Lee’s original cameo in Spider-Man would have been, cutting it was for the better.

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