Spider-Noir first look pictures: Nicolas Cage as spin-off private eye superhero

You have to step back to consider how wild it is that we got here at all.

When was the last time someone made a live-action TV show spun-off a character from an animated film? Certainly nothing that convinced Nicolas Cage to strap in for the small screen.

Cage voiced the character of Spider-Man Noir one of the alternate reality Spider-Heroes in the excellent 2018 movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

His Spidey was a huge break-out character from that ensemble – a film-noir 1930s detective whose black-and-white monochromatic appearance was a contrast to the otherwise almost hyper-coloured Spider-Verse.

A version of that character is returning in the Spider-Noir series but rather than it be Peter Parker, it will now be someone called Ben Reilly, which first appeared in the comic books in 1975 as a clone of Parker.

Set in the noiriest of noir milieux, Spider-Noir takes place in 1930s New York City, and Ben is a retired superhero who stepped back from his avatar after, what else, a personal tragedy. Now he works as private eye.

His bestie is a journalist named Robbie Robertson (Lamorne Morris), and he’ll also cross paths with a nightclub singer named Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li). Keeping it all together for Ben is Janet (Karen Rodriguez), his loyal and scrappy secretary.

There’s the promise of an “extraordinary case” that will prompt Ben to return to his The Spider alter ego, presumably something he’ll come across while he’s detecting.

Brendan Gleeson is reportedly playing a mob boss named Silverman, the target of several assassination attempts and whose past is linked with Ben’s.

Other cast members include Jack Huston, Lukas Haas, Cameron Britton, Cary Christopher, Amy Aquino and Amanda Schull.

The series released its first-look images today.

Produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the brain trust behind the Spider-Verse films, and developed by Oren Uziel, the show will run for eight episodes.

In a nod to its film noir genre, it will be available to stream in two versions – colour and black-and-white.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a commercial and critical hit when it was released in 2018, and went onto the win the Oscar for best animated feature, breaking Disney’s six-year streak in that category.

Centred on Miles Morales, an Afro-Latino teenager in New York City, the film was praised for its kaleidoscopic mix of animation styles.

A sequel followed in 2023, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which was the first half of a two-parter, and the final instalment, Beyond the Spider-Verse is due for release in mid-2027, three years later than originally scheduled.

Production had been delayed in part due to the 2023 Hollywood actors strike.

The series is part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which is adjacent to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The “main” live-action Spider-Man character is played by Tom Holland, who will be returning for his fourth solo adventure in Brand New Day, slated for release in July.

A series of films such as the three Venom movies, Morbius, Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web are tangentially connected, existing in a separate parallel universe to Holland’s Peter Parker. Tom Hardy’s Venom character briefly crossed over to Holland/Marvel Cinematic Universe in a mid-credits teaser.

However, these films have been inconsistent at the box office with several of them failing to connect with a mainstream audience. Sony has since paused further development on similar big screen live-action films.

There had been a project in development in which Bad Bunny would play a character named El Muerto, a wrestler who gains superpowers, but by 2023, the Super Bowl headliner was no longer attached.

Spider-Noir will be released on Prime Video sometime before mid-year.