New Documentary ‘Stan Lee: The Final Chapter’ Details Scandal Surrounding Final Years of Legendary Comic Creator's Life

Stan waiting to start a long signing

Producers Launching Kickstarter to Help Raise Funds to Finish Groundbreaking Film

I knew that Stan had not been treated the best in his last years, but I had no idea how badly he’d been exploited.”

— Mark Waid, famed comic book writer

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, March 11, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Producers are in the final stages of a groundbreaking documentary, "Stan Lee: The Final Chapter," detailing the last years of legendary comic book writer and creator Stan Lee’s life, where intimate, never-before-seen video reveals how mistreatment, duplicity and conflict plagued him up until his death.

Lee, the driving force behind the Marvel

franchise and superheroes Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor and The Hulk, died in November 2018 in financial ruin and surrounded by a cast of dubious characters. The documentary showcases a thriving market where Lee’s signatures and memorabilia were converted into huge piles of cash—most of it never to be seen by Lee or his family.

Jon Bolerjack, an international comic book dealer and independent filmmaker, spent the last four years of Lee’s life inside his world, traveling to conferences across the globe and capturing exclusive video with the American icon. Bolerjack, who shot hundreds of hours of unseen footage during his time with Lee, goes behind-the-scenes with Lee’s closest confidants, including several who exploited Lee’s declining health and age, while profiting off his name and likeness.

In 2018, just before his death, Lee sued his former business manager and attorney, calling them “unscrupulous businessmen, sycophants and opportunists” who sought to take advantage of him following the death of his wife, Joan Lee.

Over the last four years, Bolerjack, alongside a team of editors and additional producers, has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money putting together the documentary, which includes exclusive interviews with members of Lee’s former staff and entourage. Before his passing and as seen in the documentary, Lee gave Bolerjack his blessing to use the footage and create a film that could be shared with the world.

Starting today, the producers are launching a Kickstarter to help raise funds to finish the documentary, which is expected to be available before the end of the year. Details can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stanleefilm/thefinalchapter

“It was an absolute dream come true for me to get to intimately know, befriend and travel the world with one of my life’s icons, Stan Lee,” says Bolerjack. “He entrusted me to capture the final years of his life on video and encouraged me to share this footage with the world after he was gone. And after witnessing how a handful of people who surrounded him continually betrayed him in his weakened condition, I felt it was left to me to tell this shockingly and truly heartbreaking story of his last days.”

The documentary also features interviews with some of Lee’s peers and other comic book icons, including Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld and Roy Thomas, who succeeded Lee as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and is known for introducing Conan the Barbarian to the comic world.

Mark Waid, famed comic book writer known for his work on DC Comics titles like The Flash, Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, stated, “I knew that Stan had not been treated the best in his last years, but I had no idea how badly he’d been exploited and that’s a message people need to hear. The best part of it is that it’s not anecdotal, it’s not that I heard this or I saw that, it was I was there, this person was there and some of the closest people to Stan are on camera talking about what Stan underwent and the slime that grabbed him near the end and exploited him.”

And Tyler Kirkham, a best-selling artist and comic book author who has worked for DC Comics, Marvel and other studios, added, “Seeing Stan get taken advantage of was really hard to watch. I think it’s really important that people see this, especially if you are part of this pop culture community, you know who Stan Lee is. You have such good memories of Stan, whether it’s the characters or the comic books that he created, everyone knows who he was. I think it’s very important that people see this and get these behind-the-scenes videos, get the insights that no one knows about. This is something that’s special, this film needs to be watched.”