Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir was one of the surprise fan favorites from the Spider-Verse movies. The actor used his Massive Talent and put on one of the more memorable performances in a movie full of them, even though he didn’t have as much screentime as Miles, Gwen, and Peter. The idea of a broody, monochromatic detective Spider-Man was a new concept to some fans, but Spider-Man Noir was introduced long before he showed up in the multiversal animated movies. Now, he’s getting his own live-action show, but not as Peter Parker; instead as Ben Reilly, and that name carries a lot more questions than answers. We have the first trailer for the series, and it looks pretty cool.
The eight-episode series stars Cage as an older version of Spider-Man who is a detective in New York during the 1930s. Ben is a bit of a burnout, which is refreshing after every Spider-Man being a standup citizen who saves the day because it’s right. But if you’re unfamiliar with Ben, this might not be the best introduction to him, as Cage’s character seems to be a composite character of Spider-Man Noir and the Scarlet Spider. In the comics, Ben Reilly is a clone of Peter Parker who has taken on different roles and aliases as the years have gone on. It’s unclear if naming Cage’s character Ben is a nod to another Spider-Man story, or if it’s going to actually play into some twist down the line.
Spider-Noir will premiere on Amazon on May 27, and will be available in both color and black-and-white to capture the character and comic’s original black-and-white color scheme. Based on the views of the YouTube trailers, it looks like folks might be gravitating toward the monochromatic filter. That feels fitting.
Though it’s being released on Amazon, this show is technically part of Sony’s extended Spider-Man universe, which has mostly bombed with absolute stinkers like Madame Web and Morbius. The Venom movies were kind of okay, sometimes. Really, Spider-Verse is the best thing Sony has done as it’s held onto the movie license, other than partnering with Marvel to bring Peter Parker to the MCU, and hopefully some of the brilliance of those animated movies has rubbed off on Spider-Noir. If not, Cage is usually still worth tuning in for, just to see what he does with bad material.