The late Marvel comics legend Stan Lee will have his voice and likeness replicated by an AI company for commercial use, it’s been announced.
AI audio company ElevenLabs has acquired the rights to Lee’s image and voice and intends to license them for further use by other companies, opening the door to a digitally-resurrected Lee appearing in films and commercials.
ElevenLabs users will also be able to hear a replication of Lee’s voice narrate audio books — including via a “Stan Lee Book Club of the Month” — and generate a comic book panel featuring Lee from templates that include his likeness.
“Stan always believed in meeting his fans where they were: in the pages of a comic, at a convention, or in a quick on-screen cameo,” said Chaz Rainey, a lawyer and board member for Stan Lee Universe, the company that currently owns Lee’s image, per Variety.
“This partnership is a way of continuing that. 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.”
This isn’t the first time that Lee’s voice and image have been replicated using AI. Last year’s Los Angeles Comic Con saw technology company Proto Hologram charge between $15 and $20 for a three-minute chat with Lee’s AI likeness, to widespread disapproval from fans.
The legal rights to Lee’s image remain a messy subject, with Stan Lee Universe now set up as a joint venture involving Lee’s own company POW! Entertainment. Shortly before his death in 2018, however, Lee also attempted to sue POW! Entertainment, claiming the company’s other chiefs conspired to “fraudulently steal” his name and likeness and benefit financially at his expense.
Lee was 95 at the time of this lawsuit, and by his own admission had suffered from advanced macular degeneration for several years, a condition that left him unable to read unaided.
For ElevenLabs, Lee is just another voice added to its vault of living and deceased celebrities, which already includes Michael Caine, Matthew McConaughey, Judy Garland, David Hasselhoff and Albert Einstein. Caine previously said that ElevenLabs was “using innovation not to replace humanity, but to celebrate it… It’s not about replacing voices; it’s about amplifying them, opening doors for new storytellers everywhere.” The company’s technology was also used to bring the late James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader to Fortnite as a chatty NPC.
Image credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
