Director Sam Raimi opened up about the missed opportunity of having Bruce Campbell play a more significant role in another Spider-Man film.
In the Rolling Stone interview, Raimi shared that what he missed most about the Spider-Man movie he never made was “the really great cameo we had designed for Bruce Campbell.”
Campbell, who appeared briefly in all three of Raimi’s Spider-Man films opposite star Tobey Maguire, was rumoured to play Mysterio. Rami said that was one of the possibilities. “We had other things in mind, too, but that was one of them.”
In the months following the release of Spider-Man 3, Raimi began work on the fourth entry in his successful franchise. After numerous delays and script revisions, the film was eventually scrapped. The comic book superhero was finally rebooted with Andrew Garfield as the leading man. Mysterio was played by Jake Gyllenhaal in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far from Home.
Raimi and Campbell’s relationship span decades, having met in high school. The pair worked together on Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead 2 (1987).
Raimi and long-time friend Robert Tapert were executive producers of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, two shows that Bruce Campbell also played a recurring role as Autolycus, the king of thieves. Sam’s brother Ted Raimi also had a recurring role in Xena as Joxer and played Hoffman in the Spider-Man trilogy.
Lucy Lawless, who played Xena for six seasons, had a 3-second blink, and you miss it cameo in Spider-Man 2002. In a 2007 interview, Hercules actor Kevin Sorbo made his feelings known about not getting a part in one of Rami’s films.
“I busted my ass on Hercules, and during Season Five, I almost died doing it,” he continues. “I had an aneurism that exploded in my body that almost killed me. I think I’m a good enough actor that he can put me in a secondary part in one of his feature films. It would be nice if he did that.”
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