Audiences loved Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance as Spider-Man’s illusionist villain Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but the bizarre bad guy was rumored to have appeared in movies much earlier, played by Bruce Campbell in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man series. While Campbell himself debunked these rumors, the idea of the Evil Dead star playing a classic Spider-Man villain was an enticing one for audiences.
Still, while Campbell never got a chance to don Mysterio’s famous fishbowl helmet, he did appear as Mysterio in an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man — which also featured cameos from Sam Raimi, Avi Arad, and Tobey Maguire!
The rumors of Bruce Campbell playing Mysterio were inspired by the multiple cameos Campbell made in all three Raimi Spider-Man movies. In the first film, Campbell played a wrestling ring announcer who named Peter Parker “The Amazing Spider-Man” after he found Peter’s original stage name (“The Human Spider”) less than spectacular. Campbell next appeared as a snooty usher in Spider-Man 2 who refused to let Peter into a theater to see Mary Jane perform in her play. By Spider-Man 3, however, Campbell had a friendlier relationship with Peter, appearing as the maître d' of a French restaurant who helped Peter propose to Mary Jane.
According to a fan theory, all three characters were actually the same person — actor/illusionist Quentin Beck, who had assumed these roles to spy on Spider-Man and prepare for his new role as the supervillain Mysterio in Spider-Man 4. During San Diego Comic Con 2019, however, Bruce Campbell stated that Raimi had never contacted him to play Mysterio in an upcoming Spider-Man film, meaning that his Raimi cameos were simply cameos (much like his brief appearance in Raimi’s other superhero film Darkman, where he appeared as one of the titular hero’s false faces).
Still, the prospect of having a fan-favorite actor play Mysterio was too good for some creators to pass up, so in an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, the Ultimate Universe’s version of Bruce Campbell appeared in full Mysterio gear — on the set of a Spider-Man film. In Ultimate Spider-Man #54, Peter Parker learns that cult director Sam Raimi and producer Avi Arad are shooting a big budget Spider-Man movie in New York City. Since Spider-Man’s identity is a secret in the Ultimate Universe, the film has to take some liberties with his character, but Tobey Maguire has been cast as the webslinger, whom Arad promises will be “A nobody. A loser” without his mask.
Furious, Peter crashes the filmset and chews out Maguire, Arad, and Raimi (while conceding that Evil Dead 2 was “cool”). Instead of being intimidated, however, Raimi asks questions about Doctor Octopus while Arad has the cameramen shoot the real Spider-Man in action so they can use the footage for their movie. Although the film’s actual story remains a mystery, the filmmakers consulted with Doctor Octopus’ ex-wife and Norman Osborn’s half-sister, indicating that Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin would be the villains of the movie.
In the next issue, however, Raimi films a different Spider-Man villain — Mysterio, who appears in a dramatic cloud of smoke bellowing, “All of you shall bow before the genius of the one true Mysterio!” In the next scene, readers see Mysterio removing his helmet as Raimi comments, “Great job, Bruce!” Although the actor’s face and full name were never revealed, the implication was clear — Ultimate Sam Raimi had finally cast Bruce Campbell as Mysterio.
Just how big Campbell’s part would have been is unknown — however, later Doctor Octopus also crashes the film set and engages the real Spider-Man in battle. The cameramen film the fight, edit it into their movie, and produce a blockbuster. Sadly, this could mean that many of Campbell’s Mysterio scenes were left on the cutting room floor (or that his character was cut from the film entirely).
Weirdly, the mainstream Marvel Universe’s version of Mysterio traveled to the Ultimate Universe at one point and murdered that universe’s Kingpin. How this Mysterio is connected to the Ultimate movie Mysterio (if at all) is unknown, but now fans of the Bruce Campbell/Spider-Man film theory can enjoy knowing that in one universe, Campbell did get to play the fishbowl-wearing villain!