Los Angeles Comic Con is next week, and one of its big guests is, apparently, an AI hologram of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, the hologram will be part of the Stan Lee Experience at LACC. Along with the standard $15-20 experience fee to join the booth, fans can spend money to take selfies with the hologram or have one-on-one conversations with it for three minutes. It was created by Proto Hologram—the company that made an interactive mirror for malls to promote The Conjuring: Last Rites—and virtual production company HyperReal.
Stan Lee Legacy Programs head Bob Sabouni assured the trade that the hologram wouldn’t say anything that isn’t “in line with things [Lee] spoke about in his lifetime, [letting us] build a voice that stays true, not always word for word, but always faithful in spirit, context, and intent.”
Even so, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Stan Lee died in late 2018 months after reports circulated of people in his social circle trying to capitalize on his decades-long success for their own ends in very weird ways. (One source at the time described the whole ordeal as “a fucking mess,” which just says it all.) This can’t help but fall into that territory, compounded by the fact that he can’t say no or even be duped into consenting as he could’ve toward the end of his life—and that’s not getting into the recent controversies and concerns surrounding AI and its relationship to the dead.
In a statement to io9, Chris DeMoulin, CEO of LACC parent company Kamikaze Entertainment, said he previously worked with Lee in the 2010s when LACC had a license deal with Lee’s POW! company, and observed “how much Stan loved interacting with fans, being on panels, telling the Marvel story, and engaging future generations of fans. I met with Bob and pitched him the idea of working to create a hologram representation of Stan, which could faithfully represent how Stan used to interact with fans at cons, including [ours].” The hologram has been in development for “several months,” added DeMoulin, and has been “coming along great” in recent weeks.
“This is all about helping to extend Stran’s legacy — something he himself talked to many of us about when he was alive. […] We know that this hologram isn’t Stan, and can never be perfect. But we think it is fun, authentic, very accurate in terms of how it responds to questions, and gives the fans a look into who Stan was, kind of [like] an IRL documentary. And in that regard, it serves the mission of the Stan Lee Universe team to preserve and extend Stan’s legacy into the future. We invite everyone to come see it for themselves, and after you’ve actually experienced it, we’d love to get your feedback.”
io9 has reached out to LA Comic Con organizers for any additional comments or clarity on the Stan Lee hologram and will update if a response is given. Los Angeles Comic Con runs September 26 to 28.
Update (9/20/2025 @ 2:30 PM ET): This story has been updated with quotes from Kamikaze Entertainment CEO Chris DeMoulin.
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