….
Red Studio.
The studio lights were dimmed to a natural glow, simulating the sterile ambience of a university lab.
Cameras were set in position, lenses carefully aligned.
The atmosphere on set was different today, the exhaustion of months of filming, the strain of night shoots, the meticulous retakes - all of it hung in the air like a weight.
Yet there was also a lightness.
The crew, tired but buzzing, whispered among themselves: this is it.
Every scene of the movie was done.
Every stunt, fight, and emotional beat, even the carefully guarded end-credit sequence with Robert Downey Jr. was safely in the can.
Only one scene remained - the cameo.
The man everyone was waiting for finally entered.
Stan Lee.
Not just the Marvel icon, but here - in this world - the living heartbeat of every character.
The world has yet to know his greatness... And Regal believed this was the beginning of it.
The studio doors swung open with a faint squeak, and a rush of cooler air slipped into the set.
Heads turned, crew members whispering under their breath.
Regal, perched in his director's chair with a half-empty coffee, noticed the stir instantly. He didn't even need to ask why.
Stan Lee had arrived.
The old man in his trademark tinted glasses, cardigan, and that relaxed shuffle strolled in like he owned the place - or rather, like he had written it. Which, in many ways, he had.
The set was buzzing, lights being adjusted, extras whispering, someone nearly tripping over a cable.
Regal was in his chair, flipping through notes when a voice from behind cut through the noise.
"So this is where the magic happens, huh? Looks smaller than the comics."
Regal turned, already grinning.
There he was - Stan Lee, strolling in with that half-smile, tinted glasses catching the light. The man didn't need an introduction; he carried it in the way people instinctively straightened when he passed.
"Stan." Regal said, walking over. "You made it, so what do you want to do? Wanna try the spidey suit once? And one or two swings?"
Stan chuckled, shaking his head. "I leave the acrobatics to the kids in tights. At my age, climbing stairs is already a cameo."
The nearby crew cracked up, and Regal couldn't help but laugh with them. He leaned in a little, lowering his voice. "You know, if you keep dropping lines like that, people are gonna forget I am the director here."
Stan put a hand to his chest, feigning innocence. "Kid, trust me. Directors are like gods on set. Me? I'm just the old guy they let wander around so the fans have something to smile about."
"Fine." Regal shot back. "First payment is a free coffee from craft services. If you can survive that, you can survive anything here."
Stan laughed, the kind of laugh that settled everyone around into ease. "Kid, I have lived through deadlines, angry editors, and fan mail thicker than a New York phone book. Your coffee doesn't scare me."
Regal just shook his head, smiling wider than he realized. Having Stan on set wasn't just a cameo. It was like the universe itself giving a thumbs-up.
For a moment, they just stood there, grinning - two men from different generations, bound by one world.
Regal felt the weight of it, the surrealness of having the man who dreamed Spider-Man into existence now stepping foot onto the set where Spider-Man's story was being reborn.
"Welcome to the set, Stan." Regal said with genuine warmth. "It's your house, really. I am just borrowing the keys."
Stan adjusted his glasses, that playful glint in his eyes. "Well then, don't scratch the furniture, kid."
The crew laughed again, the tension lifted, and Regal exhaled slowly.
The legend had arrived - and it already felt like the film was a little bit more complete.
….
The set was already dressed: the Oscorp laboratory, towering glass cases filled with hundreds of genetically altered spiders.
Dim blue lighting gave the place an eerie hum.
At the center, Andrew Garfield, in his Peter Parker outfit, stepped onto the taped mark. His shirt half untucked, backpack slung loosely, that boyish awkwardness written into his shoulders.
There is no Spider-Man mask today, swinging or quips. Just Peter Parker, still only a boy, about to be changed forever.
The director explained:
"Stan… you are not just a passerby here. In this scene, you are the first one who notices Peter. You are the silent witness when the spider finds him. It's almost… like you are handing the torch to him."
Stan chuckled softly, eyes sparkling. "...hm, I clearly see what you are aiming for. But still I would have loved to play J. Jonah Jameson."
"We alredy talked about it…"
Ingnoring Stan's words, Regal moved behind the monitor, headset pushed slightly to the side.
The set itself was simple: rows of glass containers, the faint shimmer of spider webs, a cold tiled floor.
Yet every corner was crafted to perfection, at the far edge, Stan Lee stood after walking out of the makeup room dressed plainly as a janitor.
A mop in hand, a bucket of water beside him - just a man at work.
"Can everyone be quiet on set..? We are about to shoot." the assistant director Emma called.
The young man in the set... Nodded their heads in unison with full attention as the set is already quiet now…
It was so natural any one can tell that it seems this is who things are happening for quite a while here
The room is still.
Andrew's backpack slung over one shoulder, shy posture perfected, stepped into his mark.
The cameras were turned on... now running.
Regal leaned forward, his eyes narrowing slightly, searching for the rhythm, the truth of the moment.
"Action."
Andrew walked forward, his movements modest, the hesitant steps of a boy who didn't yet know the world would call him a hero.
As he passed by, Stan Lee was in frame, slowly dragging the mop across the floor, his head tilted slightly down, focused on his job.
He didn't so much as glance at Peter, but the camera caught the subtle overlap of their presence, an ordinary man, and the boy about to be extraordinary.
Andrew pushed open the lab door and slipped inside.
The camera followed just long enough to see the webbed terrariums glint under the sterile light.
Then, inside, is where the inevitable happened: the spider, lowering from its silk, biting into his skin. Andrew flinched, sold the pain with just a twitch of his arm, then staggered backward.
Which has already been short... As such.
Peter brushes past, leaning closer to the enclosure, the spider drops silently, landing on his hand.
He winces, jerks, mutters "Ow!" under his breath.
….
"Cut to hallway!" Regal's voice was quiet, almost reverent.
The second camera was ready.
Just before Regal could call it, Andrew's eyes lifted and met his. For a brief second, it was only the two of them - director and actor, trust hanging in the air.
Then came Regal's calm but firm cue: "Action."
Something clicked in Andrew's mind.
Instinct took over, and he slipped into Peter Parker as if the character had been waiting inside him all along.
It was a familiar feeling he expressed... Few more times during the shooting, but for now he brushed it off..
He stumbled back out of the lab, this time with deliberate imbalance, his steps were unsteady, his body slack, as though something foreign was already coursing through him.
Sweat shone faintly on his face, he didn't have a line, but the performance spoke louder than words.
Stan Lee was still mopping, still in character as a janitor, he glanced up briefly - nothing dramatic, nothing forced.
Just the natural concern of an older man watching a kid lose balance.
Andrew wavered, leaning against the wall for a second, his breathing grew heavy, shoulders rising and falling.
The acting was realistic... It was hard to believe it as one.
Even Sten Lee felt it...
He stumbled again, disappearing almost completely around the corner, and then, just as he was about to vanish - Stan Lee did something unscripted.
He stopped mopping, his lips parted, his voice soft, almost uncertain:
"Careful, kiddo."
The crew froze.
Regal didn't yell "cut." He didn't even breathe for a second.
It was definitely not planned...
Stan wasn't supposed to speak, but the words felt… right.
Not for Andrew Garfield.
But for Peter Parker.
For the boy about to leave behind the life of anonymity, the boy is about to step into a life of loss, love, sacrifice, and relentless burden.
The boy Stan had written decades ago, knowing exactly how heavy the world would sit on his shoulders.
…maybe it was a concern from a creator to his creation.
Andrew, already sweaty, half bent forward, stopped for the briefest moment.
He turned his head back, face pale, eyes clouded as if he was losing consciousness, he didn't have a line here either.
But something in him answered back, in a whisper that came naturally, almost broken:
"Thank you, sir."
And then, just as quickly, he kept walking, body unsteady, disappearing fully out of sight.
The room was silent, for a long time, no one on the crew dared move.
It was supposed to be just a cameo, just a man pushing a mop while Peter Parker walked into his destiny. But instead, it had become something more - an unspoken farewell, a blessing, a warning.
Stan Lee had become the last person to see Peter Parker as just Peter Parker, before the world would forever know him as Spider-Man.
Regal leaned back in his chair, his throat tight, he knew instantly, that they had just captured something irreplaceable.
"Cut." Regal finally said, his voice quieter than it had ever been on set.
Stan Lee lowered his mop again, slipping back into silence.
But in that instant, with only a single line, he had become the last man to see Peter Parker before he stopped being just Peter.
And everyone in the room felt it.
Regal finally pulled the headset from his ears, exhaling through his nose…
He turned toward the monitor, eyes locked on the playback that was frozen on Stan's silhouette, mop in hand, watching Andrew vanish around the corner.
"Run it back." Regal said softly.
The assistant DOP rewound.
The screen flickered, and there it was again:
Andrew slouched, sweat glistening on his cheekbones, the faintest shake in his fingers as though he was truly carrying venom in his veins.
Stan Lee, silent, ordinary, just a janitor in the frame, hesitating, then lifting his chin as if something inside of him compelled him to speak. The way his lips shaped those two words, the gravity in them.
"Careful, kiddo."
It played again, and again, each time sinking deeper into everyone's bones.
Andrew came stumbling back onto the set, his hair damp from the sweat of performance, chest heaving. He pulled off the schoolbag strapped across his chest, dropping it against the wall with a dull thud.
"Was that okay?" he asked, his voice shaky, almost like he hadn't quite shaken off Peter yet.
Regal didn't look at him immediately.
Instead, his gaze flicked to Stan.
The old man was still holding the mop like nothing special had just happened, blinking innocently at the sudden attention. Almost shy, almost like he wasn't aware that in two seconds he had just become the emotional keystone of the entire film.
"Stan…" Regal said, standing now, walking toward him. "You just gave me my last scene."
"It almost looked like you were writing, again, though this time around not on a page, but right here." He tapped his chest.
....
From behind the monitors, Regal finally rose.
"That's it." He said, his voice carrying more gravel than usual. "Ladies and gentlemen… that was the last shot."
Applause erupted this time - unrestrained, cathartic.
Crew members hugged, someone popped a bottle from craft services that probably wasn't supposed to be opened yet, and Andrew was immediately swarmed by costume and makeup staff who suddenly realized they would just guide him through the entire transformation of Peter Parker.
But Regal didn't join in right away. He lingered where he was, arms folded, watching the set dissolve into celebration.
For months, maybe years in his head, this story had lived like a storm inside him. And now, in the quiet aftermath of a cameo, it was finished.
Stan eventually set the mop against a wall and walked over to him. His face was unreadable, but his eyes were bright. He gave Regal a small nod - nothing grandiose, just acknowledgment between creators. One had started this universe on a blank comic page; the other had carried it to the screen.
"You know." Regal finally said, almost chuckling. "I think you just gave us the most important scene in the film without even realizing it."
Stan smiled faintly, shrugged, and shuffled off with the quiet grace of someone who had been doing this for decades.
As Regal turned back toward his crew, reality hit him.
The film was complete.
The journey - endless script revisions, midnight shoots, arguments over suits and lenses, broken rigs, exhausted actors, those first nervous days of wondering if audiences would accept Peter Parker - all of it was now sealed.
The camera had stopped rolling.
Tomorrow, the work would shift - edits, sound design, VFX layers, marketing chaos. But tonight, as the studio lights dimmed and the crew carried out their last props, Regal allowed himself one rare moment of stillness.
Spider-Man was no longer just an idea on a page.
And the last person to see Peter Parker before he became Spider-Man… was the man who first imagined him.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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