The following contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, now playing in theaters.
In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as much as director Sam Raimi paid homage to the foundation the Marvel Cinematic Universe built in 2008, there were also many nods to the horror genre. Raimi honored movies such as Carrie and The Exorcist, and as expected, he stuck in tributes to his own past with Evil Dead and Army of Darkness.
One of the biggest callbacks was him using his longtime collaborator, Bruce Campbell, to reference how the actor appeared in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. However, while it made fans giddy to see Campbell once more in a funny Marvel role, in terms of being a Spider-Verse cameo, well, Raimi totally botched it.
In Multiverse of Madness, Campbell played a hot dog vendor, Pizza Poppa, on the sidewalk when Strange and America got to Earth-838. He was angry that America stole food, as she thought it was free like in other universes. He berated the duo, only for Strange to place a spell on him, causing him to keep hitting himself -- a nod to Evil Dead 2, where Campbell's Ash kept slapping himself due to his demonically-possessed hand. Thankfully, the post-credits had the spell finally broken after Scarlet Witch's massacre ended, with Pizza Poppa expressing relief.
However, Campbell's entire character was a missed opportunity for him to fulfill what many Spidey fans wanted: a Mysterio cameo. Campbell was long-rumored to be in the running for the Mysterio role in Raimi's movies, which many felt would have organically connected to him always being a random person interrupting Peter Parker's life. Raimi himself said Campbell could have been his Mysterio in a fourth film, but along with plans for Kraven, nothing panned out after Spider-Man 3 killed the franchise.
Thus, seeing as Jake Gyllenhaal already was Mysterio on Earth-616, Campbell could easily have been connected to this role for a final hurrah. He could have worn a Mysterio tee while selling his product, or if Raimi wanted to get more creative, he could have had Campbell's character running a puppet show on the sidewalk as a sort of makeshift Mysterio. It'd have tied into Mysterio's love for theater in the comics as Quentin Beck and given him his own 'production' after failing as a thespian. Raimi could even have had Campbell's Mysterio telling a myth about Spider-Man, poking fun at how Strange erased all memory of Peter from the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home, leaving him as a folklore character.
Sure, the Evil Dead nods were cool, but that scene and Multiverse of Madness' post-credits sequence felt like they occupied time only fans of the '80s would appreciate. Ultimately, the street performer route would have fit the MCU's narrative, honored what folks came to see and left room for a Campbell-Mysterio variant later on in the MCU. It'd have allowed Raimi to deliver fan service to two generations and provided Campbell his stint as a grounded Mysterio to officially cap the director's vision for the old Spidey flicks.
To see Campbell as Mysterio get squandered, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now in theaters.