Spider-Noir premieres on Prime Video next month, and the first promo art featuring Nicolas Cage's web-spinner has been revealed. There are some classic Spider-Man poses here, and a tagline that first caught the attention of fans when the teaser trailer was released.
"With No Power Comes No Responsibility," it reads, a stark contrast to the more familiar "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility."
Is this a hint that Cage's Ben Reilly won't have superpowers? What we've seen of him shooting webs and swinging around New York seems to dispel that theory, though we've seen it suggested that Spider-Noir's powers are in his head, with those moments all imagined. We'll see.
Spider-Noir has a solid cast and creative team, so even taking some major liberties with the comics could be acceptable to fans if the series is good enough. Still, the "With Great Power..." mantra is supposed to be a key part of every Spider-Man's story, so it will be interesting to learn why that differs for this wall-crawler.
Co-showrunner Oren Uziel recently addressed another big change to this Spider-Man Variant when he addressed the decision to put Ben Reilly under the P.I.'s mask. "Peter Parker feels very synonymous with a high school kid. Boyish. On his way up. Ben Reilly has already gone through the entire arc and has seen it all."
"He’s over it, and trying to move past it. But his past kind of keeps coming back to haunt him. It's just a different version that we haven't seen before."
Executive producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have also addressed the change, with the latter explaining, "This character's very different from the Peter Parker from the movies. He's older and jaded, and not afraid to punch a guy in the face drunkenly." Lord noted, "He already had his Chinatown disillusionment moment that happened years and years ago."
"I have to be coy about the reasons, because you'll find out," he continued, before Miller added, "The reason he's named Ben Riley is explained. We’ll leave it at that."
Take a closer look at this first wave of Spider-Noir promo art in the X post below.
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.