Well, I hate to end this week on a down note, but looks like Bruce Campbell will not be making a cameo appearance in friend Sam Raimi’s upcoming Oz: The Great And Powerful after all. The actor let the news out on Twitter earlier today –
Currently in production, Oz: The Great And Powerful stars James Franco as the titular Kansas con-man who arrives in a magical land and finds himself embroiled in the machinations of three sister witches.
Since the two friends broke into the film business together with 1981‘s The Evil Dead, Campbell has made cameo appearances in a number of Raimi’s films that he didn’t happen to be starring in. In Darkman, Campbell appeared as the masked, final appearance of the film’s tragic, titular hero before disappearing into a group of pedestrians. Most famously, he has had small roles in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, always as someone who thwarts Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker. As he jokingly boasts at convention appearances, “I’m the only man who has defeated Spider-Man!” He had previously stated that he would probably have a cameo in Oz.
A Campbell cameo is just one of two trademarks that fans look for in Raimi’s films. The other is the appearance of an old 1973 yellow Oldsmobile Delta 88, the same model that the director once owned. While any car may seem out of place in Oz, remember that Raimi did manage to sneak a disquised Olds into his western The Quick And The Dead, so anything is possible.
