The late Stan Lee will be remembered in the upcoming television special Celebrating Marvel's Stan Lee, which will air on ABC later this month. Featuring many stars of the Marvel Universe and famous faces who are big fans of Lee's, the goal of the special is to celebrate the life and legacy of the legendary comic book creator. Along with testimonials from other Marvel stars, the special will also feature never-before-seen interviews and archive footage of Lee from the Marvel and ABC News archives. The program airs on Friday, Dec. 20, at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Clark Gregg is hosting the program, and he'll just be one of many familiar faces we'll be seeing on the show. Also confirmed to appear on Celebrating Marvel's Stan Lee are such names as Tom Hiddleston, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Ming-Na Wen, Saquon Barkley, Mark Hamill, Jimmy Kimmel, Method Man, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, Lauren Ridloff, Kevin Smith, Deborah Ann Woll, Joe Quesada, Seth Green, Bob Iger, CB Cebulski, Todd McFarlane, Kevin Feige, and Gerry Conway. Even more celebrities than the ones listed here will also be featured in the doc, with each of them sharing some of their fondest memories of Lee and his work.

After spending more than seven decades working in the comic book industry, Stan Lee has forever solidified himself as one of the biggest legends in the history of the business. Working with other Marvel writers and artists, Lee helped to co-create many of Marvel's most popular superheroes and supervillains, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Avengers, Ant-Man, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Black Panther, and The Incredible Hulk. According to his own daughter, Lee had continued to collaboratively create new superheroes all the way to the end, as she says Lee helped her develop an idea for another superhero just days before his death.

In addition to his work with Marvel Comics, Lee had also maintained a steady presence in Marvel-based TV shows and movies since 1989. This began with a cameo in the telefilm The Trail of the Incredible Hulk, evolving into a running joke which had fans expecting him to appear in some capacity in every Marvel-based movie. Lee has appeared in a plethora of TV shows based on Marvel comic books as well, including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, and Daredevil. His final live-action cameo came earlier this year in Avengers: Endgame.

Celebrating Marvel's Stan Lee was filmed in part in front of a live studio audience at The New Amsterdam Theater in New York. You can catch the program when it airs on Friday, Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Lee is still very clearly missed by many a year after his passing, but it's undeniable that his incredible legacy will live on forever, and that will be made all the more apparent in the upcoming TV special. This news comes to us from Marvel.com.

Celebrating Marvel's Stan Lee