With the passing of Stan Lee, the Marvel universe will never be the same again.

But we're not just waving farewell to a legendary writer, editor, producer, and publisher. In addition, we're saying a heartfelt goodbye to the man who made over 50 cameos in the Marvel universe. Not to mention dozens of other appearances in non-Marvel films.

But we don't have to mourn this tradition quite yet. We have good news for you: you won't have to watch an Avengers film without Stan Lee for a while.

Back in April, in an interview with BBC Radio Scotland, Avengers: Infinity War co-director, Joe Russo, revealed that the Marvel icon had already filmed his cameo in Avengers 4.

The 47-year-old stated that Lee liked to do his cameos in bunches, to save him traveling down to the sets numerous times, and hinted that he had filmed his cameo in the yet-to-be-titled Avengers film months ago.

"So, Stan, typically we try to get him out — he doesn't love to fly — so we try to get him out for his cameos around the same time," he said. "So if we have other movies shooting on the same lot that we're on, for instance, Ant-Man 2 or Avengers 4, we group his cameos together and then move him from one set to the next and kind of get him through his cameos in one day."

Based on these comments, it looks like fans can look forward to Lee making an appearance on May 3, 2019. Thank God, right?

The former president and chairman of Marvel Comics' cameos first began decades ago, before superhero movies even existed. In fact, they started off as a joke.

In the 1960s, his likeness would be inserted occasionally in covers and inside the pages of the Marvel comics he was overseeing by his artists who found it amusing.

Lee explained the situation to Business Insider, claiming that he hadn't intended to begin a tradition, it just happened.

"The artists back then would draw me in as a joke or just to have fun," he said. "And I would put some dialogue balloons there and it looked as if I intended it. I didn’t try to do cameos in those days. Anything that seemed fun and anything that the readers seemed to enjoy we kept doing and those things brought in a lot of fan mail. And we weren’t doing movies or television, our whole existence depended on comic books, so if you see that something is interesting to the fans you stay with it."

The Marvel icon certainly did "stay with it", appearing in countless cartoons, TV shows and movies, and becoming the face of the company. Before his death, he stated that his favourite cameos to do were the comedic ones. Reportedly, he particularly liked his cameo in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron because "it’s so funny".

The first Marvel film without a cameo from him will be a sad occasion indeed.

With the passing of Stan Lee, the Marvel universe will never be the same again.

But we're not just waving farewell to a legendary writer, editor, producer, and publisher. In addition, we're saying a heartfelt goodbye to the man who made over 50 cameos in the Marvel universe. Not to mention dozens of other appearances in non-Marvel films.

But we don't have to mourn this tradition quite yet. We have good news for you: you won't have to watch an Avengers film without Stan Lee for a while.

Back in April, in an interview with BBC Radio Scotland, Avengers: Infinity War co-director, Joe Russo, revealed that the Marvel icon had already filmed his cameo in Avengers 4.

The 47-year-old stated that Lee liked to do his cameos in bunches, to save him traveling down to the sets numerous times, and hinted that he had filmed his cameo in the yet-to-be-titled Avengers film months ago.

"So, Stan, typically we try to get him out — he doesn't love to fly — so we try to get him out for his cameos around the same time," he said. "So if we have other movies shooting on the same lot that we're on, for instance, Ant-Man 2 or Avengers 4, we group his cameos together and then move him from one set to the next and kind of get him through his cameos in one day."

Based on these comments, it looks like fans can look forward to Lee making an appearance on May 3, 2019. Thank God, right?

The former president and chairman of Marvel Comics' cameos first began decades ago, before superhero movies even existed. In fact, they started off as a joke.

In the 1960s, his likeness would be inserted occasionally in covers and inside the pages of the Marvel comics he was overseeing by his artists who found it amusing.

Lee explained the situation to Business Insider, claiming that he hadn't intended to begin a tradition, it just happened.

"The artists back then would draw me in as a joke or just to have fun," he said. "And I would put some dialogue balloons there and it looked as if I intended it. I didn’t try to do cameos in those days. Anything that seemed fun and anything that the readers seemed to enjoy we kept doing and those things brought in a lot of fan mail. And we weren’t doing movies or television, our whole existence depended on comic books, so if you see that something is interesting to the fans you stay with it."

The Marvel icon certainly did "stay with it", appearing in countless cartoons, TV shows and movies, and becoming the face of the company. Before his death, he stated that his favourite cameos to do were the comedic ones. Reportedly, he particularly liked his cameo in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron because "it’s so funny".

The first Marvel film without a cameo from him will be a sad occasion indeed.