HOLLYWOOD, CA – OCTOBER 20: Stan Lee attends the Premiere of Disney and Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange” on October 20, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
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Iconic Marvel Comics writer/editor Stan Lee departed this world in 2018 after an impressive 95 year lifetime that spanned from the earliest beginnings of the American comic book industry in the 1940s to the era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But apparently 95 years was not enough for people who profited from his widely recognized face, shades, baggy sweaters and charming midcentury “New Yawk” accent. Today ElevenLabs, a prominent generative AI audio developer, announced a deal with Stan Lee Universe, which holds the rights to Lee’s voice and likeness, to add Lee to its marketplace of simulated celebrities licensable for commercial use in audio, video and comics-based projects.
Lee joins a growing list of celebrities both dead and still living, including Judy Garland, Burt Reynolds, Albert Einstein, Michael Caine and David Hasselhoff, who have been exhumed and reanimated through the dark magic of LLMs. Producers are betting big that audiences’ hunger for the familiarity of departed favorites will overcome qualms over taste and basic decency that this technology raises, and they may be right.
In Lee’s case, it can be argued that his voice was central to the rise of Marvel, as his personality helped the upstart publisher differentiate from staid and stuffy competitors like DC, Archie and Dell at a time when a new generation of fans was looking for something new. Through the dialogue he contributed to comics like Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Thor, to the letter pages and “Stan’s Soap Box” columns he ran in every Marvel comic book, to interviews he gave to culture magazines in the 1960s and early 70s, Lee transcended the “juvenilia” niche that comics had occupied to become a bona fide public figure.
As Marvel moved into the world of media through cartoons and live action shows, his voice, likeness and persona became the glue that held Marvel’s story universes together and papered over shortcomings in early, cheap productions with wry humor. Through the 80s and 90s, when he was no longer active in Marvel publishing, he built a personal brand through these appearances and constant engagement with fans at conventions and personal appearance.
But all that paled in comparison to the notoriety he gained with Marvel’s arrival on the big screen in the 2000s. What began as a series of novelty cameos as Easter eggs for longtime fans became an MCU tradition as the movies grew into global pop culture milestones. Hundreds of millions of people who may never have read a Marvel comic or heard the names Stan Lee or Jack Kirby now recognized that quirky old guy in the sweater. Even into his 90s, with his faculties dimming, he still packed huge rooms at conventions and had fans lined up for hours for exclusive (and lucrative) signings.
His demise in 2018, after a reportedly grim twilight period following the death of his wife Joan a year previously, left fans saddened. It also created a huge void in revenues from businesslike like Pow! Entertainment, Genius Brands International, and their joint venture Stan Lee Universe, set up to monetize Brand Stan.
The maturation of generative AI technology and companies like ElevenLabs presents a solution.
“Fans have always told us that when they read his comics, they hear the words in Stan’s voice, and now, thanks to ElevenLabs, we can make that a reality,” said Chaz Rainey, a lawyer and board member for Stan Lee Universe, in a statement.
Trained on hours and hours of professional recordings, the AI simulation mimics Lee’s distinctive voice, expressions and mannerisms. According to the announcement, users can generate comic book likenesses (restricted to non-commercial use) or use his voice to narrate any book through the Eleven Reader app.
The company is also planning its own series, “Stan Lee Book of the Month Club,” where the simulated Lee will read aloud different books from the public domain, starting with one of the real Lee’s personal favorites, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
When he was alive, Stan Lee was an early and enthusiastic adopter of new technologies, dating back to the days of interactive multimedia CD-ROMs. His estate signed on to NFT and metaverse projects when those technologies felt promising and lucrative. So this move to generative AI, an increasingly controversial technology in the creative industries in which Lee built his career, comes as no surprise.
Is there an appetite among fans for a real-life Marvel zombie? Stan Lee Universe and ElevenLabs have now given us an opportunity to find out. Nuff said, true believers.