Looks like it’s the big sleep for the latest Spider-Man spinoff. That’s right, Spider-Noir has been rubbed out, see. Bit the big one. And I ain’t talking about no bug. Despite some acclaim, Amazon MGM will not be renewing Nicolas Cage’s anachronistic arachnid. Lights out. Curtains. The big rolled up newspaper.
Continuing his capers from the animated Spider-Verse movies, Nic Cage’s super powered private dick Ben Reilly took on some nasty characters of a depression-era underworld, including Black Cat, Tombstone and Silvermane. While the films made his arch-nemesis a multicolored Rubix Cube, the live action Spider-Noir series imagined more low down, mean streets for a web-slinger loosely pulled from the pages of the 2009 comic series. Hitting Prime Video just last May, the streaming series spun up positive reception with audiences. Trapping a walloping 11 Emmy nominations. Despite this, Amazon MGM Studios has reportedly passed on renewing Spider-Noir for a second season.
Cage, whose own name is a pseudonym composed of his favorite Marvel comic characters, produced the series alongside Christopher Miller, Phil Lord and Sony’s Amy Pascal. Ahead of Ryan Gosling’s immolation, Cage appeared on the big screen as Ghost Rider through the mid-aughts. He also donned the man of steel’s cape in an infamous cameo in The Flash, based around a 20 year old anecdote from Kevin Smith about Tim Burton’s doomed Superman. While the series is bowing out, Spider-Man Noir will reemerge in future Spider-Verse movies, and Sony says they intend to continue producing new spinoff series in their continued little rights tango that gave us classics like Morbius and Madame Web.
Even if Disney had full control of Peter Parker’s ever growing web, it’s not like the future of their streaming series is on much stabler ground. Despite considerable success with audiences and a seemingly confirmed second season, the house of mouse abruptly cancelled Wonder Man. Ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, it seems like there’s a sudden shuffling of Marvel characters to realign with whatever awaits beyond that horizon. The big tent pole, see?