The late Marvel Comics co-founder Stan Lee left an incalculable mark on the entertainment industry as a whole. As co-creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and many more, his characters have appeared in comics, television series, movies, toys, and merchandise worldwide. About a decade before Lee passed in 2018, he met Jon Bolerjack, a comic fan and documentarian who pitched a reality show.
Lee agreed, and Bolerjack began filming him at conventions, autograph signings, sets, movie premieres, and his home. This footage he has now used to create the upcoming documentary “Stan Lee: The Final Chapter,” focusing on the last few years of the legend’s life.
“Stan Lee: The Final Chapter”
During this time, Bolerjack became concerned that his schedule was too demanding on the 80 to 90-something year old Lee. (Roughly around the same time, several allegations of elder abuse concerning the Marvel founder also went public). This led to him breaking the “cardinal rule” of documentary filmmaking, growing close to your subject.
“I grew to look at him as a friend, as family, and I really wanted to be there to advocate for him,” Bolerjack says. He claims he tried to lessen Lee’s workload, and demanded he get more breaks. “I was doing the best I could.”
Despite Lee always maintaining an upbeat attitude when he was representing Marvel, Bolerjack says Lee approved of showing the blemishes in his final years. “I spoke to him about this at length, even toward the very end of his life,” the filmmaker said. “A lot of things have happened to him, but I didn’t get the real sense that he felt shame about it. I think he wanted it out there to be that sort of warning.”
Why Now?
To be fair, most of these dark spots revolve around Lee’s inner circle and not himself. Because of this, “Stan Lee: The Final Years” was kept hush-hush until recently for fear of retaliation. The announcement about the documentary came alongside a Kickstarter campaign to complete work on the project.
The trailer features interviews with other comic book legends like Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld. Several of these interviews corroborate the behavior that we see on screen, with many admitting they didn’t know HOW bad the situation was. According to Bolerjack, certain members of Lee’s entourage got so greedy that they drove him to financial ruin in his last few years.
While the trailer doesn’t name any of the accused, Max Anderson, Lee’s former road manager, is shown pushing him several times when he’s clearly exhausted. His name also came up several times in the accusations of elder abuse. Accusations that Anderson vehemently denies.
The Kickstarter for “Stan Lee: The Final Chapter” at the time of this writing has raised $65,324 of its $300,000 goal with 23 days left. You can learn more about the documentary and donate here. And be sure to check out the heartbreaking trailer below:
