Sam Raimi hasn’t directed a movie since 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful, focusing more on producing in the interim, but the filmmaker will be remaining in both the blockbuster and Disney business after ending his self-imposed hiatus by stepping in for the departed Scott Derrickson on Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The Sorcerer Supreme seems like a great fit for Raimi’s sensibilities, and maybe he even feels like he has something to prove after having unfinished business with the comic book genre following the abandonment of his proposed Spider-Man 4 a decade ago. Having recently been pushed back as part of Marvel Studios’ reshuffled Phase Four release schedule, there’s also more time now to come up with the sort of trippy visuals that fans are no doubt expecting from the movie.
There’s also the small matter of casting, with only Benedicts Cumberbatch and Wong confirmed to reprise their roles alongside the addition of Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch. While the ranks will likely swell in the coming months, we’ve heard that a familiar face from Raimi’s back catalogue is now being lined up for a cameo.
According to our sources – the same ones who told us the Transformers franchise is being rebooted, Ryan Reynolds had a cameo in Hobbs & Shaw and Bill Murray is returning for Ghostbusters: Afterlife – Bruce Campbell is once again set to cameo in a Sam Raimi movie. On its own, that’s not a huge surprise given the pair’s long working relationship, but what’s most exciting is that he’s set to play one of Mephisto’s forms that Doctor Strange encounters during his adventures in the multiverse.
Details beyond that remain unclear and it doesn’t sound like he’ll have a huge presence in the film, but it’ll still be fun for fans to see him show up. After all, Campbell has already appeared in Raimi’s Evil Dead series, Crimewave, Darkman, Oz the Great and Powerful and the Spider-Man trilogy, and now it looks like we’ll see them teaming up in the MCU when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness finally gets underway.
