Prime Video's Spider-Noir 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 only superhero.
The series is taking some liberties with the comic books, replacing this alternate reality Peter Parker with Ben Reilly. Spider-Noir will also reimagine some of the wall-crawler's greatest foes; now, they're taking centre stage thanks to some poster art featured on convention badges.
As you can see in the Instagram video below, we have a first look at Brendan Gleeson as Silvermane, alongside Spider-Noir's reimagining of Black Cat, Cat Hardy.
Jack Huston's Sandman shows off his superpowers, while Joe Massingill looks to be playing a new take on Electro. Finally, we have a mystery villain portrayed by Abraham Popoola (we're going to go out on a limb here and say he might be Hammerhead).
It's previously been reported that Spider-Noir will lean into the idea of Ben's villains being monsters. With Silverman in play, we'd bet on that having something to do with his comic book counterpart's desire to acquire an ancient clay tablet meant to grant the wielder immortality.
"We could take a 1930s film-noir style—meaning that manner of speaking, the Howard Hawks quick dialogue—and mash it into another icon in the Marvel realm, which would be the spider element," Cage said of the series. "It would be like a Roy Lichtenstein collision of art appreciation. Oren [Uziel] loved the idea. But it wasn't something that we knew right off the bat necessarily would work for both of us."
"It wasn't until we went to the first read-through that I could tell the powers that be were very intrigued by it. It really wasn't 100 percent clear to me until I saw the eight episodes. I think we got there, as challenging as it felt at the time."
Elaborating on his other influences, the actor revealed, "I did look at Cagney, and I looked at Edward G. Robinson. But when you watch Bogart and you watch everybody around him, he almost seems like a cartoon character. The same thing happens here. But it's brilliant and you can't take your eyes off the guy. It's what makes him so compelling and charismatic. It almost seemed larger than life."
How do you feel about Spider-Noir's take on these classic Spider-Man villains? Check them out below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Spider-Noir's cast includes Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage (Adaptation), Emmy Award-winning actor Lamorne Morris (New Girl), Li Jun Li (Sinners), Karen Rodriguez (The Hunting Wives), Abraham Popoola (Atlas), with SAG Award-winning actor Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire), and Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin).
Guest stars include Lukas Haas, Cameron Britton, Cary Christopher, Michael Kostroff, Scott MacArthur, Joe Massingill, Whitney Rice, Amanda Schull, Andrew Caldwell, Amy Aquino, Andrew Robinson, and Kai Caster.
Spider-Noir is produced by Sony Pictures Television exclusively for MGM+ and Prime Video. Emmy Award-winning director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Killing Eve) directed and executive produced the first two episodes.
Emmy Award winner Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Killing Eve) directed and executive produced the first two episodes. Oren Uziel (The Lost City, 22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (Marvel's The Punisher, Shantaram) serve as co-showrunners and executive producers.
Uziel and Lightfoot developed the series with the Academy Award–winning team behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal. Lord and Miller executive produce, with Aditya Sood and Dan Shear. Amy Pascal also serves as an executive producer through Pascal Pictures.
All episodes of Spider-Noir premiere on Prime Video on May 27.