Kevin Feige Recalls His Last Meeting With Stan Lee in Touching Tribute

Kevin Feige‘s final conversation with Stan Lee was a little different than their previous ones; however, the Marvel Studios president admits he didn’t notice the subtle change until after Lee’s death 11 days ago.

“He was very nice in my interactions with him, including what ended up being my final conversation with him about two weeks before he died,” Feige recalled in a newly published essay for Entertainment Weekly. “[…] Did he know that his time was running out? I don’t know. In hindsight, he was slightly more wistful than I’d seen him before. He talked about the past more than I had ever heard him talk about the past. So maybe on some level, he knew.”

So what did the two discuss during their last sit-down? Lee’s past and upcoming MCU cameos. 

With every Marvel film that gets released, fans could count on a brief, but special, appearance by the comic book legend. Feige said Lee always had a good attitude about the cameos, and, in fact, would often ask for bigger roles; however, Feige noted that these requests were made in jest—sort of.

“When I sat down by his chair in our last meeting, the very first thing he said was: ‘I know you want me to star in the next movie, but I have to just stick to the cameos. You’ll have to leave the starring roles to the other actors. I’m sorry,'” the studio boss wrote. “He would show up to the movie sets game for anything. But one thing he would always do is try to add more lines. He always would joke—but not really joke—about wanting more lines, although he understood why we couldn’t.”

You can read Feige’s full essay on Entertainment Weekly‘s website.

Lee, who died Nov. 12 at the age of 95, is expected to appear in a number of upcoming MCU projects that were shot before his death.