Nicolas Cage stars as Ben Reilly / The Spider, with Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston, and Brendan Gleeson also starring. The series was revealed to be in development in February 2023, with Uziel involved, and Lightfoot was hired that December. Cage's casting was confirmed in May 2024, when the series was ordered and titled Noir before it was retitled Spider-Noir that July. Filming took place in Los Angeles from August 2024 to March 2025.
Spider-Noir is set to premiere on May 25, 2026, on MGM+ in the United States, and will consist of eight episodes. All episodes will be released globally on Prime Video on May 27.
Premise
Ben Reilly, an aging, down on his luck private investigator, grapples with his past life as the only superhero in 1930s New York City, the Spider. When an exceptional case comes his way, Reilly must become the Spider once more.[1]
Cast and characters
Main
Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly / The Spider: An older, grizzled version of Spider-Man who is a down on his luck private investigator and superhero from an alternate world based on 1930s New York City.[2][3][4] He returns to being the Spider after stepping away from the role years prior because of a personal tragedy.[5] Executive producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller described Reilly as "older and jaded, and not afraid to punch a guy in the face drunkenly" and someone who "already had his Chinatown disillusionment moment" many years prior, with co-showrunner Oren Uziel saying despite trying to move beyond his past, it keeps returning "to haunt him".[4] Cage approached his performance as "70 percent Humphrey Bogart, and 30 percent Bugs Bunny", believing Reilly was "a spider trying to cosplay as a human." He also looked at actors James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson for the performance. Cage was inspired by Bogart's performance in the film The Big Sleep (1946) when Reilly goes undercover.[6]
Lamorne Morris as Robbie Robertson: Reilly's friend and a hard-working freelance journalist who pursues riskier stories to garner attention and progress his career.[7][4] Uziel said Robertson is optimistic and "thinks he's lucky, and it's all going to work out" with his investigations, compared to Reilly who is the opposite and a cynic.[4]
Karen Rodriguez as Janet: Reilly's secretary and fellow investigator. Uziel likened Janet to Effie from the film The Maltese Falcon (1941), a character "that can be helpful, that the P.I. can lean on, that can be hard on him, but loves him".[4]
Abraham Popoola as a World War I veteran who is searching for an "opportunity to get ahead"[8]
Brendan Gleeson as Silvermane: A New York mob boss who has been the target of multiple assassination attempts and has connections to Reilly's past.[4] Gleeson described the character as a philosopher with "a drone-eye view" who is equally dangerous.[9]
The series will consist of eight episodes.[17]Nzingha Stewart also served as a director of the series.[18] Additional writers include: Megan Liao and co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot co-writing the third episode; Tori Sampson writing the fourth; Jennifer Frazin and Lightfoot co-writing the fifth; Jack Henderson writing the sixth; Bruce Marshall Romans writing the seventh; and Uziel writing the eigth.[16]
Production
Development
Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Tony Vinciquerra stated in March 2019 that Sony's shared universe of Spider-Man–related properties,[19] known as Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU),[20] would be expanding to television with a set of Marvel Comics projects developed by Sony Pictures Television. The studio was "essentially internally auditioning" characters from the 900 it could access to decide which medium they would appear in.[19] After their work on Sony's animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Phil Lord and Christopher Miller signed their production company Lord Miller Productions to an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television in April 2019 to develop multiple television series for the studio, including their Marvel-based series, which could potentially include characters from Into the Spider-Verse as well as live-action properties. Select projects would be produced in conjunction with Amy Pascal, a frequent producer of the Spider-Man films,[21] with the intention for Lord and Miller to reboot the Spider-Man property for television.[22] By September 2020, Sony was in talks with Prime Video for the latter to be the streaming distributor for Sony's "suite" of Marvel-based television series.[23]
Sony Pictures Television was revealed in February 2023 to be developing a television series based on the Spider-Man Noir character for MGM+ and Prime Video via Amazon MGM Studios.[2][3] Miller believed a series based on the character was "the biggest no-brainer of all time". Oren Uziel, a close friend of Lord and Miller's who was a fan of film noir,[4] was writing for the series and developing it with fellow executive producers Lord, Miller, and Pascal through their production companies Lord Miller Productions and Pascal Pictures.[2][24] Miller said Uziel had a "perfect" take on approaching the series.[4] In December, Amazon hired Steve Lightfoot, who was the showrunner of the Marvel Television series The Punisher (2017–2019), to serve as co-showrunner and an executive producer alongside Uziel;[25] the two are credited as the series' developers along with Lord, Miller, and Pascal.[1]
Amazon announced at its upfronts presentation in May 2024 that the series was ordered and titled Noir, and that Harry Bradbeer had joined as an executive producer and to direct the first two episodes.[3]Nzingha Stewart served as another director.[18] Additional executive producers are Aditya Sood and Dan Shear of Lord Miller,[11][24] star Nicolas Cage, and Pavlina Hatoupis.[1] In July, the series was retitled Spider-Noir to better highlight its connections to the Spider-Man universe,[7] and was revealed to consist of eight 45-minute long episodes.[17] Lesley Goldberg at Puck reported in August 2024 that Sony was not expected to renew its overall deal with Lord and Miller after the duo disagreed with the studio on the series' budget.[22] By the end of 2024, Sony was reported to no longer be developing further films for its franchise at that time and was instead focusing on other projects, such as Spider-Noir.[26]
Writing
Christopher Chen, Megan Liao, Tori Sampson, Jennifer Frazin, Jack Henderson, and Bruce Marshall Romans served as writers on the series, alongside Uziel and Lightfoot;[16] Romans previously worked with Lightfoot on The Punisher.[27] Miller said in May 2023 that development, along with the writers' room, was put on hold because of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike that began earlier that month, and that work would resume after the strike concluded;[28][29] the writers' strike ended in late September 2023.[30]
Spider-Noir is set in an alternate world based on 1930s New York City,[2][3] with Sony Pictures Television president Katherine Pope describing the series as a reimagining of the Spider-Man Noir character in the SSU.[3] Upon the reveal of the series' development, Variety reported that it would be set in its own universe and that the series would focus on a different main character rather than Peter Parker, who is the identity of Spider-Man Noir in the comics.[2] The main character is known as Ben Reilly, the name of a separate character in the comics who is a clone of Peter Parker and becomes the Scarlet Spider. The Reilly in Spider-Noir is not known as "Spider-Noir" rather "The Spider" as a way to harken back to some of the early crimefighters in comics such as the Spirit and The Shadow. Uziel said one of the reasons for changing the name of the character from Parker to Reilly was to better fit with the series' noir tone, saying that "Peter Parker feels very synonymous with a high school kid. Boyish." Lord and Miller also said there were additional narrative reasons for changing the name that would be addressed in the series,[4] while Cage said Spider-Noir would explain why Reilly "talks the way he talks" beyond "just mashing the flavors of 1930s film performance and Marvel iconography".[6]
Casting
Spider-Noir marks actor Nicolas Cage's first lead role in a television series.
Lord and Miller said in May 2023 that there was potential for Nicolas Cage to portray Spider-Man Noir in the series after he previously voiced a version of the character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.[28] Cage was in talks for the role by February 2024,[31] and was confirmed to star by May as Ben Reilly / The Spider.[3][4] In July 2024, several actors were cast in the series, including Lamorne Morris as Robbie Robertson,[7]Brendan Gleeson as Silvermane,[32][4]Li Jun Li as Cat Hardy,[33][4] and Abraham Popoola.[8] Gleeson's casting was confirmed in September,[34] when Jack Huston and Karen Rodriguez joined the cast as series regulars as Flint Marko and Janet, respectively.[35][36][4] Also that month, Lukas Haas, Cameron Britton, Cary Christopher, Michael Kostroff, Scott MacArthur, Joe Massingill, Whitney Rice, and Amanda Schull were all cast in undisclosed recurring roles,[11] with Haas's character working for Gleeson's.[10]Andrew Lewis Caldwell was cast to recur in the series in November,[12] followed by Amy Aquino and Andrew Robinson joining in February 2025,[13] and the next month, Kai Caster had joined for a guest role, which was said to be connected to another character in the series.[14]
Design
Trayce Field served as the costume designer, after previously designing the Prowler super suit worn by Donald Glover for a live-action sequence in the animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023),[37] while Warren Alan Young was the production designer, after working on the Marvel Television series Runaways (2017–2019).[38]
Filming
Principal photography had begun by August 2024 in Los Angeles,[39][40] using the working titleOld Fashioned,[41] with Darran Tiernan serving as the cinematographer.[42] Gleeson had begun filming some of his scenes by the start of October.[9] Filming was temporarily suspended due to the January 2025 Southern California wildfires,[40] and it was initially scheduled to last until February 2025;[17][41] filming had concluded by mid-March.[10] During filming, camera monitors were live-graded to black and white and specific lighting was implemented to capture the authentic style of early 1930s noir films.[4][10]
Post-production
Tirsa Hackshaw, Eric Kissack, and Jennifer Barbot serve as the series' editors;[18][43][44] Hacksaw previously worked with Lightfoot on The Punisher.[18]
The series was created for release in both black-and-white and color. To achieve the two versions, on-set footage was captured digitally to then be split and processed separately. The team coined the term "True-Hue" to refer to how they went about creating their Technicolor-like color version, with Cage saying that version was made to look "super saturated" and Uziel noting it was as if the black and white film had been colorized.[4] Cage likened the style of the color version to the painting Nighthawks (1942) by Edward Hopper.[6]Anthony Breznican at Esquire felt each version resulted in different vibes for the series, "with the color version veering more toward the lighthearted comic-strip crime capers of Dick Tracy, while the black and white conjures the sinister moral abyss of the novels ofRaymond Chandler".[4]
Music
Kris Bowers and Michael Dean Parsons were revealed in February 2026 to be composing the series' score.[45]
Marketing
During Amazon's upfronts presentation in May 2025, a promotional first-look picture of Cage in costume as Spider-Man Noir was unveiled. Jordan Moreau of Variety described the costume as "iconic" and stylistically similar to the version worn by the character in the animated Spider-Verse films.[24] Rosy Cordero at Deadline Hollywood described the teaser as "moody".[15] The first trailer was released on February 12, 2026, in both black-and-white and color. It featured the tagline "With no power, comes no responsibility",[46] a "cheeky riff" on the phrase "With great power comes great responsibility" associated with Spider-Man.[47]
Release
The Spider, as seen in the "Authentic Black and White" release (top) and the "True-Hue Full Color" release (bottom).
Spider-Noir is set to premiere in the United States on MGM+ on May 25, 2026.[1] The series will consist of eight episodes,[17] and will be released in both a black-and-white and a fully colored version,[24] marketed as "Authentic Black and White" and "True-Hue Full Color", respectively.[46] Cage hoped the dual release would inspire audiences to become interested in early black and white noir films to gain an appreciation of them as an art form.[4]Spider-Noir will be released globally, including in the United States, in its entirety on May 27 on Prime Video.[1][48]
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