C2E2: Paul Rudd’s story about meeting Stan Lee is absolutely the sweetest thing

During C2E2’s Clueless panel, Paul Rudd shared one of his first memories meeting Stan Lee. It was an absolutely sweet tribute to a late legend.

Though the great Stan Lee is no longer with us, we all know one of his lasting legacies is the mark he left on the comic book world and the sweet moments he’s shared with the actors who’ve brought that world to life on screen.

Of the tons of Marvel movies adapted for the big screen, one of the more unique movies Lee was ready to see (interestingly enough) was Ant-Man. The Ant-Man himself, Paul Rudd, shared this reveal during the Clueless panel at C2E2 in Chicago, where Culturess was able to hear Rudd tell his story about meeting the comic giant.

Fair warning, you may want to get your tissues ready first, because it’s surely a story that will instantly make you miss Lee and his greatness. Rudd recalled when he met Lee while filming Ant-Man, saying:

"That was a real thrill, meeting him. And one of the things that I will always treasure was when we were working on the first movie and he did his cameo. He showed up and it was like the president showed up. Everyone in the crew got very starstruck and reverential. And he couldn’t have been sweeter to everybody.And then he stayed and was watching a little bit of his scene, and he was telling me how happy he was that Ant-Man was being made into a film — and that the thing that made him really excited about it was you were going to be able to see the scale the way he imagined it. Because when you do it in comic book when you’re drawing the panels, it’s very hard to really convey the size of something.When you’re drawing Ant-Man this big, you can’t really focus on the background that much. So he’s like, “I really think the effect will be what I always imagined because I never got to see things the way I imagined it.” And it was a really incredible moment."

If there’s one fact to save you from full-out bawling over Lee’s appearance on the Ant-Man set, know that he will have one of his final cameos in Avengers: Endgame. Lee also appeared in Captain Marvel, and there just may be hope that he’ll have a cameo in Spider-Man: Far From Home later this year.

But aside from being completely awestruck by meeting Stan Lee, Rudd seemed to be just as enthusiastic to join the MCU in the first place. During the same panel, he revealed that stepping into the roll was very unexpected, saying:

"It was so unexpected. I never would have imagined that, at that point, me stepping into the MCU. And it was really super exciting. And when I first started, it was a little crazy because Edgar Wright was on board…  And so I think kind of once it equalled out, it was amazing and it has continued to be that. I really valued the experience playing that part."

The bit of craziness Rudd was referring to was when Edgar Wright was signed on to direct and co-write the movie. After years of writing and shooting test footage, Wright eventually dropped out of the project due to creative differences. He’s still credited as the writer for the 2015 movie, but Peyton Reed has since stepped in to direct both that movie and the 2018 sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp.

One subject Rudd was particularly quiet about was what happens to his character in Avengers: Endgame. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, we found out Scott Lang was notably missing from Avengers: Infinity War because he found himself trapped in the Quantum Realm at the end of the movie.

Now, in the trailers for Endgame, we see Ant-Man is back. But just how does he get out? Rudd teased that he knows everything about Endgame, but it’ll have to be a surprise to the rest of us until we see the movie.

We’ll be looking forward to seeing Rudd in Avengers: Endgame on April 26. And we’ll all have to look out for Stan Lee’s cameo in the movie, because it’ll definitely be a scene to remember.