Popverse's top stories

• Pan’s Labyrinth’s Pale Man lair hides a disturbing detail Guillermo del Toro didn't think you would notice

• Peter Cullen, the iconic voice of Optimus Prime, held a small but important place in anime history

• Jim Lee has some "crazy ideas" for more DC/Marvel crossovers, including "not just the characters everybody knows"

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is filled with stars — and we don’t just mean the ones in the constellations protected by the Guardians of the Galaxy. While Marvel Studios has made the reputations of many of its leading actors (you know it’s true, Chris Pratt… or Chris Hemsworth… or even Chris Evans, if we’re brutally honest about it), there are all kinds of familiar faces to be found elsewhere inside the Marvel pantheon, especially where you might least expect them.

That’s right! We’re talking about the cinematic joy that is the celebrity cameo! Who doesn’t love the sight of someone who just outright doesn’t belong in a particular role just showing up and being distracting, even in retrospect? Marvel movies are filled with such cameos, especially if your definition of “celebrity” is “was in popular sitcom Community,” because so many cast members from that show have shown up in various Marvel movies across the years. We’re going farther and wider than just actors from that one show this time around, however, and looking at the highs, lows, and just plain weirds of celebrities showing up throughout the MCU so far.

This is the latest topic in Popverse's new weekly series Famous, Infamous, and Forgotten — a vigorous, opinionated, and intense look at one specific corner in the pop culture realm we inhabit to pick out the most famous version of it all, the most infamous version of it all, and the most forgotten version of it all.

But with so many to choose from, which celebrity cameos in Marvel movies are about to make the cut? Keep reading and find out.

The famous celebrity cameo in the MCU

As much as I wanted to call out Matt Damon’s Thor: Ragnarok cameo as the actor playing Loki in the Asgardian historical drama — surely one of Marvel Studios’ finest moments in total, especially when you add the fact that Chris Hemsworth’s own brother is also cameoing as the fake Thor in the same scene — it feels churlish to not give this to the man whose cameos helped define Marvel Studios for the first decade of its reign as box office champion: Stan Lee.

In many ways, Stan’s cameos were the very definition of a celebrity cameo: he always outshone the material and dominated whatever scene he was thrown into, to the point where Stan’s cameos became a point in and of themselves, even as they became increasingly outlandish and over-the-top, but for a massive part of Marvel fandom, Stan was the face of Marvel, no matter where that face showed up. Sure, he was theoretically playing multiple characters, but everyone watching knew better: he was really just playing Stan Lee the whole time.

The infamous celebrity cameo in the MCU

Picture the scene: it’s 2010, and you’re looking for a self-satisfied rich guy to glad-hand Tony Stark for a scene for the second Iron Man movie. Who has the right combination of smugness, lack of self-awareness, and willingness to show up for a day’s shooting just for the chance to meet Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow?

Ladies and gentlemen: Elon Musk.

Of course, this was before Musk was quite as famous — or, really, infamous is the better description here — as he is today; buying Twitter and destroying it as a testament to his ego was years away, thankfully. (Happier times!) Nonetheless, watching this scene again today is a surreal experience: how did this even happen? And did Elon ever understand that he’s the butt of the joke in this scene before someone inevitably explained it to him and was likely fired for their efforts?

The forgotten celebrity cameo in the MCU

Look, not every costume can be a winner, but when it comes to looking for someone who can accurately critique a look, you need an expert. Thankfully, Iron Man 3 knew just who to pick: Joan Rivers, who shows up to make fun of the rebranding of War Machine into Iron Patriot by not just making fun of repaint of the character's armor, but also his name. While she only shows up for a handful of seconds in the finished movie, Marvel later released an alternate version of the scene that was two minutes longer, giving Rivers full reign to take on the material.

Want more? Make sure you've read our list of all the best Marvel Comics stories of all time, and the most powerful Marvel Comics characters (yes, you can debate in the comments!).