In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Bruce Campbell carried on his long tradition of making cameos in Sam Raimi films — and particularly, of being kind of unpleasant in his Marvel movie cameos. A street vendor with a cart branded “Pizza Poppa,” he got on Doc Strange’s bad side, and ended up punching himself in the face for three weeks. Some fans have called that out as quite an excessive punishment for Pizza Poppa’s “crime,” which is simply to have been rude when demanding he be paid for his wares. Either way, Campbell — never one to shy away from an opportunity to make things larger-than-life — insists it’s way more than just a cameo. The cameo thing? That’s just what they want you to believe!
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According to Campbell (who we think is joking, but who’s to say?), Pizza Poppa is a key Marvel Cinematic Universe building block, and he got exactly what he wanted out of Strange. Watch out, everybody — maybe Campbell really will get to connect all his Marvel cameos into a Mysterio story after all!
“If you get hung up on the fact that he’s a pizza guy, you are so wrong — you are so short-sighted in your thinking. It’s not a cameo, it’s a building block. Because what did I do to Dr. Strange during that scene? I intercepted him, I got information out of him, I was able to report on his whereabouts, and I delayed him for about 45 seconds. If he’s in one universe, he can’t not be in the others, the way these multiverses work….Nothing is what it seems like it is.”
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness currently has a 74% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 86% audience score. ComicBook.com‘s Jenna Anderson gave the movie a 4 out of 5 and called it “an inventive, outrageous turning point for the MCU.” The film was directed by Sam Raimi and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Wong, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo, and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez. You can read the official description for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse below:
“Now that Iron Man and Captain America have left after a fierce battle in Avengers: Endgame, former genius surgeon and the strongest magician of them all, Doctor Strange, is expected to play an active role as a central figure in the Avengers. However, using his magic to manipulate time and space at will with a forbidden spell that is considered the most dangerous has opened the door to a mysterious madness called ‘the Multiverse.’”
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is available on Disney+, DVD, Blu-ray, and other digital sales platforms.
