Nearly eight years after his passing, Stan Lee is being introduced to a new generation of digital storytelling.
Excelsior? Stan Lee Lives on via AI
Stan Lee’s voice and image are being made available through a new artificial intelligence licensing agreement with ElevenLabs.
The AI audio company has partnered with Stan Lee Universe, a joint venture between Genius Brands International and POW! Entertainment, to add Lee to its Iconic Marketplace, a licensing storefront featuring other voice models of high-profile celebrities and cultural icons.
Stan Lee Universe is a rights-management and licensing venture built around Stan Lee’s name, likeness, signature, voice, brand, and certain intellectual property he created after his Marvel era.
The ElevenLabs platform allows companies to license celebrity voices and likenesses for commercial projects and individual user-generated content.
Through the new agreement, Stan Lee’s voice can be used in select ElevenLabs offerings. His likeness will also be available in templates inspired by comic book panels, while users of the Eleven Reader app will be able to hear books narrated in Lee’s voice.
Chaz Rainey, an attorney and board member for Stan Lee Universe, said the partnership is intended to continue Lee’s legacy of connecting with fans across different forms of media.
“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 … 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.”
The voice model of Stan Lee was created using professional recordings of the prolific creator, according to ElevenLabs.
ElevenLabs also announced a new series called the Stan Lee Book Club of the Month. The program will feature a different book narrated in Lee’s voice each month. The first announced selection is Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, which is scheduled for next month.
Stan Lee, who died in 2018, remains one of the most recognizable figures in Marvel history. In addition to co-creating many of Marvel’s most famous characters, he became known to generations of fans through his energetic personality, convention appearances, and frequent cameos in Marvel films. Marvel Studios required the rights to use his name and likeness back in 2022.
Fans of the comic creator can learn more about his career and legacy through the Disney+ documentary, Stan Lee.
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