Sylvie, He Who Remains, John Krasinski’s Mister Fantastic; the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is opening up like never before, and there’s perhaps no better example of that than the myriad of variants that have been popping up as of late. With branching timelines and the endlessness of the multiverse churning out wildcards every other minute, who knows what dangers await Earth’s champions?
But Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness greeted us to perhaps the single most nefarious villain to ever threaten the convenience of our protagonists; Pizza Poppa, or, what happens when you give Sam Raimi a movie that has no natural room for Bruce Campbell, thus forcing him to improvise.
While sifting through the mess of Earth-838, Strange and America Chavez are accosted by Pizza Poppa, a vendor who reprimands Chavez for not paying for her pizza-ball, and giving brief chase to the outsiders in the same breath.
It seemed like a trivial encounter, and it was as far as the film was concerned, but Bruce Campbell, the storied actor behind Pizza Poppa, warns us in an interview with Inverse to not underestimate the reach of his character.
“There’s just more to it. There’s a little more to the theme. They just sort of tightened it up for the actual movie. But the important thing to understand is that he might not just be a pizza vendor. That would be a big mistake on your part to assume that in any way whatsoever. Well, he’s in the universe now, isn’t he? That means he’s in every universe because these are all multi-layered universes. There would naturally be variants. Also, my character up-ended Doctor Strange by delaying him for about 45 seconds.”
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently streaming on Disney Plus.