When Sam Raimi signed on to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it was pretty much a given that he was going to give his longtime friend and Evil Dead franchise star Bruce Campbell a cameo somewhere in the film, just like he had Campbell appear in each one of the Spider-Man movies he directed. (Campbell was a ring announcer in the first Spider-Man, a theater usher in the second, and a maître d’ in the third). Sure enough, Campbell showed up in the Doctor Strange movie as a character called Pizza Poppa – and in interviews given since then, Campbell has stated that not only his Pizza Poppa a variant of his Spider-Man character(s), but he also has a future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
Over a year after the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Campbell told ComicBook.com, “The cameos are like, in the Spider-Man movies — if you know anything about the multiverse, you know now, retroactively, I’m in the multiverse now because of Doctor Strange. I’m not a pizza vendor, okay? That would be a massive mistake to think I’m just a pizza vendor, or an usher, or a ring announcer, or a maître d’. It’s called the multiverse, my friend. So, yes, he is the same character, but we don’t know who he really is. It has not been revealed yet. I just got off the phone with the guys at Marvel, and we’re getting close to finding out.” Spider-Man: No Way Home did open portals in the multiverse that allowed the MCU’s Spider-Man (played by Tom Holland) to interact with Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man from the Amazing Spider-Man movies and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man from Raimi’s trilogy – and if Maguire’s Spidey is out there, so are (or so is) the Campbell character(s) he interacted with.
In a new interview with Variety, Campbell added, “I play the Pizza Poppa, but ask yourself: Really? In the Marvel timeline, I’m just a Pizza Poppa? Please don’t kid yourself. My contract is that thick for that movie. You think I’d sign a contract that thick for that simple little throwaway character? What did I do in that movie? I delayed Doctor Strange. I didn’t defeat him, we didn’t fight. I delayed him from what? Did I just save Doctor Strange’s life? The Marvel world really is just starting and, again, I can only comment so much.“
Of course, Campbell is just kidding around about all of this, but it would be great to see him go on to play a more substantial role in the MCU somehow. And if Sam Raimi does come back for Doctor Strange 3, as is rumored, chances are good that Campbell will be showing up in that film as well. In the meantime, we’ll get to watch him on the Peacock series Hysteria!