ElevenLabs Partners With Stan Lee Universe to Digitally Resurrect Marvel Creator's Voice

ElevenLabs partners with Stan Lee Universe for AI voice

The $11 billion AI audio company has partnered with Stan Lee Universe to put the late Marvel co-creator's voice, likeness, and spirit on its platform, seven years after his death ElevenLabs has struck a deal with Stan Lee Universe to add Stan Lee's voice and likeness to its platform, making the late Marvel co-creator the latest deceased cultural icon to be digitally resurrected by AI. The partnership puts Lee's voice on the ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace for commercial licensing and on the Eleven Reader app, where fans can have him narrate any book. His likeness will appear on ElevenLabs Creative Templates, and two Stan Lee-inspired music filters are being released on ElevenCreative Music. The voice was crafted from professional recordings of Lee, who died on 12 November 2018 at the age of 95. Stan Lee Universe is the joint venture between Genius Brands International and POW! Entertainment that controls Lee's name, voice, likeness, and post-Marvel intellectual property. The centrepiece of the deal is the Stan Lee Book of the Month Club, launching inside the Eleven Reader app. Each month, ElevenLabs will release a public domain classic narrated in Lee's AI-generated voice, starting with Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island in June. The company says it will add one title per month for the next 12 months. The choice of public domain works is practical. It avoids the licensing complexity of narrating copyrighted books in a synthetic voice while giving ElevenLabs a recurring content programme tied to a recognisable name. Users can also select Lee's voice to narrate any book in the Eleven Reader library, extending the partnership beyond the curated monthly picks. Lee's likeness is coming to ElevenLabs Creative Templates, the company's visual content generator. Users will be able to create images and videos featuring Lee in the spirit of the on-screen cameos that became his signature across decades of Marvel films. All personal use is non-commercial and governed by safety guidelines approved by both parties. Licensed commercial use of Lee's likeness is available through the Stan Lee Universe team. Two music Finetunes, Superhero Swells and Retro Hero Fanfare, round out the offering. These are music filters on ElevenCreative Music designed to evoke the aesthetic of Lee's universe. They are available to all ElevenLabs users with no additional licensing required. The deal follows the consent-based licensing framework that ElevenLabs built when it launched its Iconic Marketplace in November 2025. The marketplace connects brands with rights holders for verified celebrity voices, including Michael Caine, Matthew McConaughey, Judy Garland, Burt Reynolds, John Wayne, and Liza Minnelli. ElevenLabs acts as an intermediary, handling licensing agreements and voice synthesis while ensuring that estates and rights holders retain control. That framework matters because the alternative is already here. AI-generated songs have appeared on deceased artists' streaming pages without estate or label approval, and unauthorised voice clones of public figures circulate freely. ElevenLabs is positioning its marketplace as the legitimate alternative, a model where the rights holders initiate and control the licensing rather than discovering their assets have been cloned without permission. Chaz Rainey of Stan Lee Universe framed the partnership as a continuation of how Lee engaged with fans throughout his career. Lee was famous for meeting audiences wherever they were, whether in comic book pages, at conventions, or in his trademark movie cameos. The AI voice and likeness tools are pitched as the next iteration of that tradition. ElevenLabs raised $500 million in a Series D round in February 2026, led by Sequoia Capital, valuing the company at $11 billion. That was more than triple its previous valuation from a $6.6 billion employee tender offer in September 2025. The company closed 2025 at $330 million in annual recurring revenue and has raised $811 million in total funding. The Stan Lee partnership is the latest in a series of high-profile deals that position ElevenLabs as the dominant platform for AI-powered digital afterlives. The Iconic Marketplace already hosts voices ranging from living celebrities like McConaughey and Caine to historical figures including Maya Angelou, Alan Turing, and Mark Twain. The company's roster spans actors, athletes, scientists, and cultural icons. Stan Lee Universe has been active in licensing Lee's legacy since its formation in 2020. In May 2022, it signed a 20-year deal with Marvel Studios granting exclusive rights to use Lee's name, voice, likeness, and signature in future films, television productions, and Disney theme parks worldwide. The ElevenLabs deal extends that licensing strategy into AI-generated content, a category that did not meaningfully exist when the Marvel deal was signed. The partnership will inevitably invite scrutiny. The ethics of AI-generated content remain contested, and putting a dead man's voice and face into new creative contexts, no matter how carefully licensed, raises questions that consent frameworks alone cannot fully answer. Lee cannot approve what his AI likeness says or does. The rights holders can, and in this case they have, but the distance between estate approval and personal consent is a gap the industry has not resolved. What ElevenLabs and Stan Lee Universe have built is the most commercially structured version of digital resurrection yet attempted for a pop culture figure of this stature. Whether that structure is sufficient to honour the legacy it claims to protect is a question that will follow every AI-generated cameo, every synthetic narration, and every licensed use of a voice whose owner is no longer here to hear it.

ElevenLabs revives Stan Lee's voice for books and digital media

Watching Avengers: Endgame marked one final bittersweet moment for Marvel fans. Stan Lee's last cameo arrived months after his death in 2018. For decades, Lee shaped superhero culture globally. His work helped turn Marvel into the entertainment juggernaut it is now. Nearly eight years later, new artificial intelligence tools will bring Lee's voice and likeness back into the spotlight. Stan Lee's estate has partnered with ElevenLabs to recreate the late comic creator's voice and image for commercial projects. The deal allows fans to hear AI-generated narrations in Lee's voice and create digital appearances inspired by his famous Marvel cameos.

AI Firm Trots Out Digitally Resurrected Corpse of Stan Lee You Can Use to Create Mind-Numbing Slop

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Stan Lee, an icon of the comic books world, died in 2018. But tell that to ElevenLabs, the AI voice synthesizing firm. On Wednesday, the company announced that it signed a new deal with the famed Marvel writer's social media brand, Stan Lee Universe, allowing it to replicate his appearance and voice using AI -- meaning that Lee will still be giving cameos beyond the grave, only this time without his say so. "You know what they never tell you about legends? They outlive the page," an AI Stan Lee said in a video released by ElevenLabs, per Variety. "With great power comes great responsibility," mimed the AI Lee in another video. "Excelsior!" According to the announcement, users can pick Lee's AI clone on the ElevenLabs "Iconic Marketplace" to narrate audiobooks and, in further mockery of his legacy, create AI generated comic panels that star him in it. ElevenLabs will also launch a new "Stan Lee Book Club of the Month" series, in which the AI Lee will read a different book every month. AI resurrections of dead public figures are always controversial and ethically fraught. But it feels especially egregious in Lee's case, as he was allegedly the victim of horrific elder abuse in his final years, before dying at the age of 95. A lawsuit accused his handlers of trotting out the ailing writer to make money off his frequent public appearances, forcing him to write his signature for fans even when he appeared to forget where he was and how to spell his name. AI, arguably, is now further robbing him of his autonomy and dignity. Stan Lee Universe doesn't see it that way, with its board member and lawyer Chaz Rainey seeming to argue that this is all in keeping with Lee's spirit. "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," Rainey said in a statement to Variety. "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." AI necromancy has taken a foothold, complaints of its unsavoriness notwithstanding. It was used in a major blockbuster film, "Alien: Romulus," in 2024 to bring back British actor Ian Holm, who portrayed the android Ash in the original film. Darth Vader voice actor James Earl Jones signed a deal before his death allowing his voice to be cloned by an AI firm, and an AI-voiced Darth Vader appeared in Fortnite years later. And an AI resurrection of the actor Val Kilmer is being used in "As Deep as the Grave," a film Kilmer agreed to star in but couldn't because he succumbed to his battle with throat cancer.

Marvel Comics Icon Stan Lee Has Been 'Revived' With AI Tech -- Again - Decrypt

The deal follows other celebrity AI licensing agreements involving actors, including Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine. Marvel icon Stan Lee has been "revived" as an AI creation -- and it's not the first time. On Wednesday, AI startup ElevenLabs announced on X a deal with Stan Lee Universe -- the joint venture managing Lee's name, likeness, and intellectual property -- to add the late Marvel creator's voice and likeness to its ElevenCreative AI platform. "The voice of a legend is now available on the Iconic Marketplace and in ElevenReader," ElevenLabs wrote on X. "Crafted from professional recordings, Stan's wit and warmth comes through exactly as you remember it." ElevenLabs is also launching a "Stan Lee Book of the Month Club" inside its ElevenReader narration app, plus visual templates and Stan Lee-inspired AI music filters for consumers. Beyond fan experiences, the deal also brings Lee's voice to ElevenLabs' "Iconic Marketplace," where companies and creators can license AI-generated celebrity voices and likenesses for commercial use. The Stan Lee deal is the latest likeness agreement ElevenLabs has signed. In November, actor Matthew McConaughey partnered with the company to create a Spanish-language AI version of his "Lyrics of Livin'" newsletter, while fellow actor Michael Caine licensed his voice for ElevenLabs' marketplace. Launched in 2023, ElevenLabs recently expanded into image and video tools in late 2025. In addition to McConaughey and Caine, ElevenLabs also hosts AI-generated voice replicas of Judy Garland, John Wayne, Babe Ruth, Alan Turing, and Melania Trump. The company's Stan Lee announcement isn't the first attempt to use AI to create an interactive likeness of the co-creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, and other Marvel titans. Last September, Los Angeles Comic Con introduced an interactive, AI-powered Stan Lee avatar that answered fan questions during the event. Organizers said the goal was to recreate the experience of meeting Lee at conventions and keep his storytelling legacy alive. "This avatar, to us, is an entry point into the world of storytelling that he created," Chris DeMoulin, CEO and GM of L.A. Comic Con parent Comikaze Entertainment Inc., told The Los Angeles Times. "We wanted to create something which can be part of maintaining and expanding on that legacy so that Stan's role in creating a lot of this is acknowledged." At the same time, AI-generated celebrity replicas remain controversial in Hollywood. While some performers and estates have signed licensing deals to monetize archived voices and likenesses, critics warn that the technology could threaten jobs and weaken protections for actors, writers, and voice performers.

AI Company Acquires Stan Lee’s Voice And Likeness For Audiobooks

Legendary Marvel artist and writer Stan Lee was allegedly a victim of elder abuse in his final years, as he was reportedly taken advantage of by business managers. Now, even in death, he is being used for other people’s profit, as AI nutjobs are dragging his metaphorical corpse out of the earth to use a mock-up of his voice and likeness. ElevenLabs, an AI-driven speech synthesis company, has entered an agreement with Stan Lee Universe to replicate Lee’s likeness and voice as part of its ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace. This is a collection of the voices and likenesses of famous people, including actors Michael Caine, Judy Garland, and David Hasselhoff. The agreement also puts Lee’s likeness in its visual generator, allowing users to create comic book panels starring the late writer. The company is also using this deal to create a new monthly series called “Stan Lee Book Club of the Month,†in which the AI will use Lee’s voice to narrate a different book every month, with the first being Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. “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,†Chaz Rainey, lawyer and board member for Stan Lee Universe, said in a statement to Variety. “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.†This shit is so damn ghoulish it actually makes me sick. Every day I’m reminded that all that speculative dystopian fiction we’ve read, watched, and played over the years is finally happening, and the fact that Stan Lee is being puppeted out like a commodity by the people who were left in charge of his legacy after his passing in 2018 is like something out of Black Mirror. So long as major creatives are viewed as a product above all else, we’ll keep seeing corporations putting the dead on assembly lines for profit, and the most depraved, parasocial people you know will lap it up. Some of the celebrities getting wrapped up in this garbage are at least able to sign off on it themselves, but Lee’s been dead longer than this tech has been in the public consciousness. It’s vile, and yet the most tech-brained corpos on the planet keep trotting the dead out like they’re merchandise to be consumed long after they’ve been buried.

Marvel Legend Stan Lee to Be 'Resurrected' Through AI, With His Voice and Likeness Licensed for Commercial Use

The late Marvel comics legend Stan Lee will have his voice and likeness replicated by an AI company for commercial use, it's been announced. AI audio company ElevenLabs has acquired the rights to Lee's image and voice and intends to license them for further use by other companies, opening the door to a digitally-resurrected Lee appearing in films and commercials. ElevenLabs users will also be able to hear a replication of Lee's voice narrate audio books -- including via a "Stan Lee Book Club of the Month" -- and generate a comic book panel featuring Lee from templates that include his likeness. "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," said Chaz Rainey, a lawyer and board member for Stan Lee Universe, the company that currently owns Lee's image, per Variety. "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." This isn't the first time that Lee's voice and image have been replicated using AI. Last year's Los Angeles Comic Con saw technology company Proto Hologram charge between $15 and $20 for a three-minute chat with Lee's AI likeness, to widespread disapproval from fans. The legal rights to Lee's image remain a messy subject, with Stan Lee Universe now set up as a joint venture involving Lee's own company POW! Entertainment. Shortly before his death in 2018, however, Lee also attempted to sue POW! Entertainment, claiming the company's other chiefs conspired to "fraudulently steal" his name and likeness and benefit financially at his expense. Lee was 95 at the time of this lawsuit, and by his own admission had suffered from advanced macular degeneration for several years, a condition that left him unable to read unaided. For ElevenLabs, Lee is just another voice added to its vault of living and deceased celebrities, which already includes Michael Caine, Matthew McConaughey, Judy Garland, David Hasselhoff and Albert Einstein. Caine previously said that ElevenLabs was "using innovation not to replace humanity, but to celebrate it... It's not about replacing voices; it's about amplifying them, opening doors for new storytellers everywhere." The company's technology was also used to bring the late James Earl Jones' Darth Vader to Fortnite as a chatty NPC. Image credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.