Sam Raimi recently lamented his biggest regret for Spider-Man 4: the scrapped Bruce Campbell cameo.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Raimi looked back at his long film career and discussed the experience of stepping back into the Marvel Universe with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He also discussed his biggest regret about not being able to make Spider-Man 4 — "the really great cameo we had designed for Bruce Campbell."
Raimi teased that he had plans to expand Campbell's Spider-Man cameos to a more significant role in the fourth installment — all three of the movies in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy featured cameos by Ash’s Oldsmobile 88 and the actor himself — confirming a long-standing rumor that Campbell might have played Mysterio in the final film. Raimi told Rolling Stone, "That was one of the possibilities. We had other things in mind, too, but that was one of them."
The studio scrapped the fourth installment of the Spider-Man franchise following numerous production delays and script changes. During the interview, Raimi also said that he "missed" the opportunity to explore Kraven the Hunter. "We were going to work that character into the next Spider-Man," the Darkman director said. "I always wanted to see Kraven fight Spider-Man on the big screen. I thought that would be really unique. He’s the ultimate hunter, and Spider-Man is like the most agile trickster of the skies."
Raimi and Campbell Have Known Each Other Since High School
Raimi and Campbell have a long history that stretches back to high school, where they made eight films together, often collaborating with Sam's brother, Ted Raimi. Campbell became the "actor" of the group, as "he was the one that girls wanted to look at." For 1981's Evil Dead, the Ash Williams actor was not only the film's star, but he also put up his family's property as collateral so that the young director could finish the film and blow it up to 35 mm for theatrical release.
Ever since the duo has had a history of working together, the pair worked together on Evil Dead sequels, 1987's Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn and 1992's Army of Darkness, and then the television series sequel, Ash vs. Evil Dead, which premiered in 2015. Now that Kevin Feige has confirmed that Doctor Strange 2 will "make Evil Dead II fans very happy," fans are itching to know if the movie will base Ash Williams's visit to the MCU Multiverse on the comics. In 2007's Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness by John Layman, Fabiano Neves, Fernando Blanco, Sean Phillips, June Chung, Randy Gentile, and Rus Wooton, with covers by Arthur Suydam, Ash Williams travels through the multiverse to slay some vicious Marvel Zombies led by Reed Richards.
Unfortunately, when asked if this Necronomicon/Darkhold connection was going to make it into the film, Raimi told Rolling Stone, "I do know about the Darkhold from WandaVision and the comic book, but I’m not allowed to say whether it’s a part of this picture or not. I’m sorry."
The real question should be if Uncle Ben's Oldsmobile 88 will appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe arrives in theaters on May 6th, 2022.