After becoming a fan favorite with his appearance in ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,’ the titular variant is now getting his own TV series. Streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime, ‘Spider-Noir’ stars Nicolas Cage (Face/Off, Lord of War) as private investigator Ben Reilly in 1930s New York City as he returns to his role as the vigilante known as “The Spider” after a new case has him spiral into a world of crime bosses, mob enforcers, and super-powered foes.
The story of the show began in 2019 with the creation of the SSU: Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. After the success of ‘Venom’ in 2018, Sony created an entire universe filled with famous Spider-Man characters, minus the inclusion of Spider-Man himself. The expansion into television was announced by former chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures, Tony Vinciquerra, in March of 2019, with ‘Spider-Verse’ directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller signing a deal to produce multiple TV series for Sony, including their Marvel-based projects. By September of 2020, Sony was in talks with Amazon Prime Video to use their platform to distribute their slate of shows. The show was announced to be in production in February of 2023, with a close friend of Lord and Miller, Oren Uziel, set to be a writer and executive producer on the show. The show was supposed to begin development in 2023, but was put on hold until the Writers Guild of America strike was settled.
Nicolas Cage was in talks to portray the character almost instantly. After voicing a version of the character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, many believed that he was the only choice to play him. When asked about whether there was any chance Cage would return in an interview for Collider, Lord responded with “There is any chance.” He was officially cast in May of 2024, with one catch: He wasn’t playing Peter Parker. Due to character differences, as well as possible rights issues, the character was instead named Ben Reilly, a separate character from the Spider-Man mythos, and used the alias of The Spider instead of Spider-Man, as an homage to old noir characters such as “The Shadow” and “The Spirit.”
Within two months, multiple other actors joined the cast. Lamorne Morris, Brendan Gleeson, Li Jun Li, and Abraham Popoola all joined in, with the four respectively playing Robbie Robertson, an investigative journalist working for the Daily Bugle, Silvermane, an Irish crime lord with a connection to Reilly’s past, Cat Hardy, a nightclub singer and a loose adaptation of Felicia Hardy AKA Black Cat, and Lonnie Lincoln, AKA Tombstone, an invulnerable enforcer who is described as “a World War I veteran searching for an opportunity to get by.” That September, Karen Rodriguez joined the series as Janet, Reilly’s secretary and a fellow private investigator, as well as Jack Huston as Flint Marko, AKA The Sandman, a bodyguard who is slowly being killed by his own abilities. Andrew Lewis Caldwell was first in an undisclosed role, who was later revealed to be Dirk Leydon AKA Megawatt, a super-criminal with electric abilities, and Jack Mikesell was cast as Jimmy Addison, a pyrokinetic who many believe to be an adaptation of Molten Man. Actors Cameron Britton, Lukas Haas, Kai Caster, and many others are confirmed to be in the series, but none of their characters have been disclosed.
In February 2026, the first teaser trailer was released, which revealed many new aspects of the series. The biggest surprise was the show having two formats: the “Authentic Black and White” and the “True-Hue Color,” the latter having the same oversaturated look as colored films from the era. Many other details were also revealed, such as Cage’s performance being a bit more exaggerated, with him describing his approach as “70% Humphrey Bogart and 30% Bugs Bunny,” additional villains such as an adaptation of Man-Spider, an experiment gone wrong who many believe to be played by Lukas Haas, Megawatt and Addison both being revealed, and one villain that hasn’t been confirmed but many speculate to be in the show: Mister Negative. A fan-favorite villain whose popularity was boosted by his appearance in both Insomniac Spider-Man games and was also heavily rumored to be in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, is possibly seen with his trademark bright white suit in both versions of the teaser.
With new teasers being released at a rapid pace and the release date inching closer day by day, let’s hope that this show does well.
With a cast full of names big and small, as well as a plethora of characters from across the Spider-Man mythos, this show has plenty that it can do right and a lot that it can’t. Hopefully, it can at least be fun and live up to being the only Spider-Man show to be rated TV-14.
