2002’s Xena: Warrior Princess, for which Sam Raimi served as an executive producer.
Following a lovingly-faithful adaptation of Spider-Man’s Amazing Fantasy origin story, 2002’s Spider-Man features a montage of Peter Parker’s earliest outings as Spider-Man in his finalized costume. Making responsible use of his powers, Peter thwarts various crimes around New York City, making a name for himself and becoming a somewhat controversial figure in the eyes of the public and the press. The montage itself is an homage to many of the earliest Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Amazing Spider-Man comic books, which also showed ordinary New Yorkers reacting to Spider-Man escapades with varying degrees of approval.
Among the citizens shown in the montage is Lucy Lawless’ character, credited as “Punk Rock Girl.” Lawless has mere seconds of screentime, and although her one line of dialogue (“Guy with eight hands. Sounds hot.”) was memorably funny, it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo that’s rather easy to miss. Nevertheless, in a film that mostly references Marvel Comics lore (including one of Stan Lee’s earliest cameos), Lucy Lawless’ brief appearance was a rare instance of a reference to Raimi’s career. Unsurprisingly, the cameo’s backstory involves Lawless’ friendship and connection to Raimi, which began with their work on Xena.
In addition to starring in the Raimi-produced Xena, Lawless’ husband, Rob Tapert, co-created the series and is a longtime friend of Sam Raimi’s. Lawless happened to be in New York during Spider-Man’s on-location filming, so she was invited to make a quick cameo in the eventual blockbuster. Lawless explained how the cameo came about in a recent interview (via Collider) in which she stated: “Sam Raimi was one of the executive producers on Xena and Hercules and is one of Rob’s oldest friends so he just invited me. I was in New York and just rocked up.” Lawless revealed other fascinating details about her quick cameo, such as her line of dialogue. According to Lawless, the humorously quirky reaction to Peter Parker’s Spider-Man alter ego was Raimi’s idea. She also revealed the short cameo’s filming was rather fast as well, with her only take being the one that ended up in the final film.
Unlike Bruce Campbell, who appears in every Sam Raimi film (including cameos in the Spider-Man Trilogy and a proposed role as Mysterio in the canceled Spider-Man 4), Lucy Lawless’ only role in the Spider-Man films was her cameo as “Punk Rock Girl.” Despite roughly five seconds of footage, Lawless’ cameo surely delighted fans of Xena, who might have gone to see Spider-Man as fans of Sam Raimi’s work as well as the Marvel Comics character. In any case, Lucy Lawless has a surprisingly simple and fascinating story behind her brief but memorable cameo in Spider-Man.
