Stan Lee to be resurrected with AI in vow to “outlive the page”
AI will resurrect Marvel Comics mastermind Stan Lee in a new deal with tech company ElevenLabs.
On May 27th, the AI audio company, valued at around $11 billion, announced the agreement with Stan Lee Universe to add the late writer’s voice and likeness to the ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace.
On the Iconic Marketplace, users can request access to voices to create editorial and commercial content, and can also create cameos with his voice.
Lee’s voice was on hand to celebrate the announcement; in a video released by ElevenLabs, his AI-generated cadence can be heard saying, “You know what they never tell you about legends? They outlive the page.”
According to ElevenLabs, the voice was trained on professional recordings of Lee.
Lee passed away at the age of 95 in 2018 from a cardiac arrest with underlying respiratory failure and congestive heart failure.
Celebrating the new collaboration, Chaz Rainey of the Stan Lee Universe shared, “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.”
From here, the comic book creator’s cloned voice will narrate some of his favourite books in the Eleven Reader app.
Stan Lee Book of the Month Club will debut with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Another 11 books will be adapted over the coming year.
Additionally, the company is adding two comic book-esque music filters inspired by Lee to its AI music generator, ElevenCreative Music, titled ‘Superhero Cinematic Swells’ and ‘Retro Hero Fanfare’.
Elsewhere, ElevenLabs has partnerships with Michael Caine, the estate of John Wayne, and Liza Minnelli. The former recently returned to the music industry with an AI-generated deep house track.
Over in the film industry, Val Kilmer’s estate celebrated his forthcoming AI role in the film As Deep as the Grave, despite his 2025 death.
Ozzy Osbourne is also set to get the AI resurrection special, with his hologram ready to meet and greet fans by the end of this summer, despite his death last year.
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