‘Spider-Man 4’: Bruce Campbell Debunks Popular Mysterio Rumor

Campbell's Mysterio was all an illusion.

Spider-Man Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell has confirmed that he was never set to play Mysterio in Sam Raimi’s planned Spider-Man 4, despite rumors to the contrary.

Any fan of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies who has ever researched the plans for the canceled Spider-Man 4 will probably be well aware that Bruce Campbell was going to appear as Mysterio. Except, it turns out, he wasn’t. The rumor was widely circulated and often treated as fact in fan circles, apparently emerging after storyboards for the film confirmed the classic villain’s minor role.

Mysterio was going to appear as a joke villain Spider-Man would hand over to the police early on in the movie. As Bruce Campbell had cameo roles in each of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, he seemed a likely fit for the part. Mysterio’s resemblance to Campbell in the storyboard helped fuel the rumor, but now the actor has spoken out on it and confirmed there were never any plans for him to play Mysterio in the fourth Spider-Man movie.

In an interview with Game Informer, Campbell was asked if he was going to appear as Mysterio in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4, to which he replied “If somebody’s wet dream came true. No, that’s all fan s**t.” He was then asked how his approach to the character would have differed from Jake Gyllenhaal’s, who eventually played a far more menacing Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Campbell replied:

“In every way imaginable. It doesn’t matter. Look, this was all bulls**t. It was, somebody saw a storyboard that kind of looked like me as he turned around and… it’s like the Doctor Strange movie. Is he in it? Is he not in it?”

The Spider-Man 4 rumors weren’t the only time Bruce Campbell was imagined as Mysterio, either. A 2004 Ultimate Spider-Man comic saw the wall-crawler facing the production team of an in-universe Spider-Man movie. The story featured comic book iterations of Sam Raimi, Avi Arad, Tobey Maguire and a version of Mysterio being played by an actor only referred to as “Bruce.”

The latest Marvel rumor surrounding Campbell is that he will appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is also helmed by Sam Raimi, marking his first Marvel project since 2007’s Spider-Man 3. Here is the official synopsis:

The MCU unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.

Directed by Sam Raimi from a script written by Michael Waldron, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, with Michael Stuhlbarg, Rachel McAdams, and Patrick Stewart.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters on May 6, 2022. Meanwhile, the first Season of Loki is now streaming on Disney Plus, with Season 2 currently in development. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the upcoming film and series, and subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.

Source: Game Informer