Bruce Campbell Talks About His Epic Cameo in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was pretty full of fun cameos and appearances from characters we weren’t expecting. Director Sam Raimi carefully chose the actors he wanted to use in the film, and it was fun for fans to see that he made a place in the film for his friend Bruce Campbell. The pair have worked together on several of The Evil Dead projects, and Raimi even gave Campbell cameos in his Spider-Man trilogy. But Campbell couldn’t be sure that his shots would make the cut, as Multiverse of Madness was an ever-evolving process.

In a recent interview with THR, Campbell said:

“I can’t believe I made it into the movie! I used to joke that Benedict Cumberbatch wasn’t sure he was going to be in the movie because they were constantly reworking the storyline and Sam had to shoot additional stuff that wasn’t in the original script, so it’s a shell game.”

As for figuring out what his character, Pizza Poppa, would do, and how he would be defeated (in a nod to The Evil Dead II), Campbell explained:

“I think it was always in the basic scene. We had to figure out what to do and how Doctor Strange would defeat him. The idea was he’s just some obnoxious guy and Doctor Strange has to teach him a lesson — which of course he does. On the day, we figured it out, workshopped it, blocked it and shot the damn thing.”

When asked if this was his favorite cameo, or if he has ranked his appearances, Campbell said:

“You know, the only criteria I ever need is that the character has to be pivotal. In the first Spider-Man, I named Spider-Man. In the second one, I’m the only character to defeat Spider-Man by not letting him into the theater. And in Spider-Man 3, he comes to the maître d’ for help with his proposal to Mary Jane. How many superheroes come to mortals for help? Like, zero. So, I set a precedent. And if you do put me in there, it’ll change the movie forever. Sam is aware that I’ve made his movies iconic.

(Laughs.) The other criteria, honestly, is the only reason to be in these movies, and that is to harass the star. If you look at all the Spider-Man films, all I’m there for is to fuck with the lead guy. That’s it. I belittle him, make fun of him, confront him and harass him. Of course, he’s always victorious, but you have to create obstacles for your hero and make the journey harder. That’s my job.

And here, we can’t really deny that I took up about an extra 45 seconds of Strange’s time. And maybe I saved his life as a result of that. Those 45 seconds, maybe I saved someone else’s life, maybe I foiled a plot. I didn’t know if you wanted to go this deep with this conversation, but I was prepared to go deep.”

As for how he feels about the Pizza Poppa popularity, he said with a laugh:

“As long as the Pizza Poppa gets paid, everything is fine. So as long as they’re not saying that they should get something for free, I’m fine with anything they want to do. (Laughs.) Yeah, the memes are coming out already. You want something to be remembered. Maybe I’ll stop being the Evil Dead guy, and I’ll be the Pizza Poppa guy.”

Campbell will always be the Evil Dead guy! But it’s really cool that he is enjoying a new popularity, and even made the end credits scene of a Marvel movie! Maybe we will see him return to the MCU one day.