Spider-Man Star Bruce Campbell Hilariously Disses No Way Home: “I Was in the Good Ones”

With great cameos must come great mockery. Cameoing as a ring announcer, an usher, and a maître d’ in director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy between 2002 and 2007, Bruce Campbell proved to be as much a menace to Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) as supervillains the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina). Appearing for a 45-minute Q&A panel at Fandemic Tour Atlanta over the weekend, the Ash Williams actor and Spider-Man cameo-maker lampooned the Campbell-less Spider-Man: No Way Home when a fan asked if he saw “the recent Spider-Man film”: 

“The recent Spider-Man, was there a recent Spider-Man movie? I didn’t know, I was in the good ones. I wouldn’t know,” a teasing Campbell said before doing a “quick recap” of his “pivotal” cameos from Raimi’s Spider-Man movies. 

“In the first Spider-Man, I have what they call a cameo role. A small little role. But sir, that’s a pivotal role,” a not-so-serious Campbell said of his cameo as the ring announcer who dramatically introduces amateur wrestler “The Human Spider” as “The Amazing Spider-Man” in 2002’s Spider-Man. 

“If my character wasn’t in that movie, this billion-dollar franchise would be called ‘The Human Spider.’ Yeah, oh yeah, I don’t like to toot my own horn, but toot toot. Enormously successful,” Campbell bragged. In 2004’s Spider-Man 2, “Spider-Man tries to get into a theater to see Mary Jane [Kirsten Dunst], his girlfriend, in a play, her first Broadway play. Seemingly another cameo, another throwaway role. No, pivotal! I won’t let him into the theater because it spoils the illusion. I’m the only character who ever defeated Spider-Man, no lie. Enormously successful.”

On 2007’s Spider-Man 3, Campbell groaned an “ehhh.” 

“I’m the French maître d’. Sure, just another cameo. ‘Just another cameo,’” Campbell mocked, “bologna! Spider-Man comes to me, the maître d’, for help proposing to Mary Jane. How many superheroes do you know who come to mortals for help? Did I help Spider-Man? No, he was kind of a dick to me in the first two movies, so no.”

Campbell continued, “I love Tobey Maguire. I showed up in the first one, he goes, ‘Oh, you’re a friend of Sam’s? Hi! How are you?’ The second one, he goes, ‘Are you back?!’ The third one, he walks on set, ‘I guess we can’t make a Spider-Man without Bruce Campbell!’ I’m like, ‘You’re starting to get the idea, punk!’” 

Campbell reunited with Raimi to film a cameo role in Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Campbell said in a recent interview his “pivotal” cameo may have been cut from the finished film.  

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now available to own on digital. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Benedict Wong as Sorcerer Supreme Wong, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opens only in theaters on May 6.