For years, concept art from Spider-Man 4 has done the rounds online supposedly revealing plans for Bruce Campbell to make a cameo appearance in the movie as Mysterio. He was going to be marched through a police station by the web-slinger, meaning Quentin Beck would have more than likely been treated as a punchline rather than a serious threat to Spidey.
Despite the actor recently dismissing those claims, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness director Sam Raimi has now confirmed that this was in the works for his Spider-Man 3 sequel.
"I miss the really great cameo we had designed for Bruce Campbell," the filmmaker told Rolling Stone of his regrets about not getting to make Spider-Man 4. "That was one of the possibilities. We had other things in mind, too, but that was one of them. And I missed Kraven the Hunter."
"We were going to work that character into the next Spider-Man," Raimi revealed. "I always wanted to see Kraven fight Spider-Man on the big screen. I thought that would be really unique. He’s the ultimate hunter, and Spider-Man is like the most agile trickster of the skies. And I wanted to see Peter continue forward as a human being."
This contradicts what we thought we knew about Spider-Man 4, as it looked like the wall-crawler was set to battle The Vulture and his daughter, The Vulturess (a weird spin on Felicia Hardy). However, it definitely sounds like Raimi once had big plans for Kraven the Hunter in that movie or Spider-Man 5.
Whether the director will ever get the opportunity to make the Spider-Man 4 he wanted is hard to say. After the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Morbius' failure, and the excitement fans have to see Michael Keaton back as Batman, the time might be right for Sony to give Tobey Maguire a call...
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in theaters on May 6.