For whatever reason, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans were expecting a great deal more cameos in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness than they ended up getting, which many have interpreted as a disappointment given the limitless potential for surprise guests to feature.
Obviously, the Illuminati came packing heavy hitters, unexpected surprises, unlikely returnees, and crowd-pleasing debutants, but based on some of the online reactions in the aftermath, you’d have thought people would only be happy if they got Tom Cruise’s Iron Man, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, the entire Fantastic Four lineup, a smattering of X-Men, Eric Bana’s Hulk, Nicolas Cage’s Ghost Rider, Wesley Snipes’ Blade, and even more besides.
On a visual level, director Sam Raimi undoubtedly delivered one of the MCU’s most eye-popping installments to date, with the filmmaker clearly enjoying a level of creative freedom he wasn’t afforded on his last superhero blockbuster, when Sony effectively shoehorned Venom into his Spider-Man 3.
With that in mind, a staunch Raimi defender has taken to social media and called out the hypocrites who found themselves unhappy with Doctor Strange 2 “only” featuring half a dozen major cameos, flipping the Spider-Man 3 script on its head.
It’s a fair point, with the other side of the divide making the well-reasoned argument that Cameos: The Movie would have been a sugar rush of fan service that contributed nothing to the overarching MCU mythology at large, other than a brief high of seeing new and familiar faces dropping by to exchange a quip or two, only to vanish without explanation and leave the story stuck in its tracks.
