November 30, 2020 1.6k votes 232 voters 48.6k views16 items
List RulesVote up your favorite actors that you sorta forgot were in the original Spider-Verse.
With the MCU's Spider-Man franchise riding high nowadays, it is easy to forget just how popular and influential the original Spider-Man trilogy was in the 2000s. And seeing how easy it is to forget that fact, it's even easier to forget all the fantastic cameos in Raimi's Spider-Man films. There certainly are a lot of them.
Now-famous actors like Joe Manganiello and Elizabeth Banks appeared in the trilogy before they became household names, but that's not all. Award-winning actors like Octavia Spencer and James Cromwell had easy-to-forget roles, and some cameos came out of left field, such as Lucy Lawless and Macy Gray. There really is something for everyone in the original Spider-Man trilogy if you have the time for a rewatch.
As far as blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos go, Lucy Lawless has a pretty great one. The star of Xena: Warrior Princess is nigh unrecognizable in her momentary cameo as "Punk Rock Girl," but it definitely is her under that wig and makeup.
Her character also thinks a "guy with eight hands sounds hot," so, she's clearly got an active imagination, as well.
After appearing in the low-budget cult classic Wet Hot American Summer but before breaking out in films like Seabiscuit and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Elizabeth Banks booked the minor role of Betty Brant in Spider-Man. Though Banks's star power continued to rise as each Spider-Man film in the original trilogy rolled around, Brant never really became a major player in the series.
Now, the actress is just as prolific behind the camera as she is in front of it, having directed films like Pitch Perfect 2 and the 2019 reboot of Charlie's Angels.
Before breaking out in the 2010s with The Help, Hidden Figures, and The Shape of Water, Octavia Spencer was just a working character actor trying to get whatever parts she could. Much like her other roles at the time (we're looking at you S.W.A.T. and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde), Spencer isn't really given much to do in her limited screen time in Spider-Man.
Watching her call Peter Parker "small fry" at an indie wrestling show is pretty fun, though.
Before his breakthrough as host of The Soup and his starring role in Community, Joel McHale got his first big-screen role in Spider-Man 2. It is a pretty thankless role as a bank employee who provides some comic relief with Aunt May during Doc Ock's bank robbery.
There is nothing quite like seeing Aunt May smack a gold coin out of the smarmy McHale's hand as he tries to illegally pocket some spare change.
T.W. Mitchell
