Despite positive reviews and several Emmy Award nominations, Prime Video cancelled Spider-Noir after its first season. That was said to be a result of low viewership and a sizeable budget, with the casting of actor Nicolas Cage no doubt contributing to the latter.
Appearing at New York Comic Con this weekend, Cage revealed (via Variety) why he won't work with Amazon again. However, it's not because he has any sour grapes about Spider-Noir's premature end, but due to the company's stance on artificial intelligence.
"Amazon is a very AI-friendly company, to the tune of $50 billion invested in OpenAI," Cage told fans in the Big Apple. "I am not an AI-friendly actor, so it’s like, connect those dots! I’m not a member of their club."
"I didn’t sign the waiver to let him use AI on 'Spider Noir,'" he revealed. "I’m probably not going to be working with that studio again, but that’s okay."
Hollywood is divided on the use of AI. Ben Affleck, for example, has embraced AI, but has recently come under fire for using it in his new movie, Animals (it has a terrible 37% on Rotten Tomatoes). Others like Cage have made it clear they want nothing to do with the divisive technology.
Before film studios started embracing AI, Cage said in a 2023 interview, "AI is a nightmare to me. It’s inhumane. You can’t get more inhumane than artificial intelligence. I would be very unhappy if people were taking my art and appropriating [it]."
Reflecting on his experience working on The Flash movie, the actor added, "When I went to the picture, it was me fighting a giant spider. I did not do that. That was not what I did. I don’t think it was [created by] AI. I know Tim [Burton] is upset about AI, as I am. It was CGI, OK, so that they could de-age me, and I’m fighting a spider. I didn’t do any of that, so I don’t know what happened there."
As noted, Spider-Noir was expensive to produce and didn't make a huge impact with viewership, making it a relatively easy decision for the streamer. The timing of the axe being dropped was surprising on Amazon's part, however, as the axe fell just two days before Spider-Noir won five awards at the 78th Primetime Creative Arts Emmys.
Spider-Noir is a live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir. It tells the story of Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage), a seasoned, down-on-his-luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life, following a deeply personal tragedy, as the city’s one and only superhero.
All episodes of Spider-Noir are now streaming on Prime Video.