In “Spider-Noir”, Nicolas Cage gives the Humphrey Bogart version of Marvel's web-slinger (exclusive)

Nick RomanoWed, May 13, 2026 at 4:00 PM UTC

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Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly on 'Spider-Noir'
Credit: Prime VideoKey Points -

Spider-Noir is "smashing together" superhero TV and film noir, co-showrunner Oren Uziel says.

"We're really trying to make an old Bogart movie. It's just that Bogart happens to be Spider-Man."

Uziel explains why Peter Parker doesn't exist "yet" in this universe and why Cage goes by Ben Reilly.

Everything you might want to know about Spider-Noir, the upcoming Spider-Man-adjacent series from Amazon (May 27 on Prime Video), can be summed up by the initial meeting with Nicolas Cage. "We sat down for 11 a.m. branzino at Bottega Louie," co-showrunner Oren Uziel tells Entertainment Weekly.

European sea bass isn't an obvious pairing with macaroons, which lent to the natural comedy of the situation at the Los Angeles-set Italian eatery. Uziel, partnering with co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot, remembers ordering those polychrome pastries while pitching the Longlegs and Ghost Rider star a unique vision for a superhero TV show mashed together with classical film noir elements.

Spider-Noir would serve as a "distant cousin," he says, to the animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which saw Cage voicing a version of web-slinging Peter Parker from an alternate dimension that exists in a constant noir-style black-and-white filter.

Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly on 'Spider-Noir'
Credit: Prime Video

"It's really not the same at all," Uziel states. The eight-episode Spider-Noir will be presented to viewers in both black-and-white and color, and Cage's character isn't Peter Parker. That figure doesn't exist in this particular Marvel world. "Not yet," Uziel clarifies. "Not in season 1, I don't think."

Instead, Cage is playing Ben Reilly, someone who was first introduced in the comic books as a clone of the traditional Spider-Man. And instead of going by the same superhero moniker, Ben is known simply under the mask as The Spider in this 1930s-set New York City marked by the Great Depression and Prohibition. At the start of the show, it's been years since the character retired his hero persona and plunged himself fully into his day job as a private investigator.

"Peter Parker is so synonymous to me with a young character and a coming-of-age story," Uziel comments. "The Ben Reilly character allows it to immediately distinguish itself from a Peter Parker story."

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Karen Rodriguez and Nicolas Cage on 'Spider-Noir'
Credit: Prime Video

Karen Rodriguez and Nicolas Cage on 'Spider-Noir' (in color)
Credit: Prime Video

Uziel remembers Cage feeling him out at that first meeting. The actor hadn't done television before. Uziel largely hadn't either. He connected with Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who directed Cage in Into the Spider-Verse and now executive produce Spider-Noir, earlier on titles like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 and 22 Jump Street. "The thing that I said a lot from start to finish was, 'We're really trying to make an old Bogart movie,'" Uziel says. "It's just that Bogart happens to be Spider-Man."

The Night of the Hunter, The Third Man, The Thin Man, Casablanca, Chinatown, L.A. Confidential, Miller's Crossing, The Last Seduction — the list of inspirations goes on, reflected in the roster of characters surrounding Cage's Ben. There's the femme fatale (Li Jun Li as lounge singer Cat Hardy), the big bad (Brendan Gleeson's mob boss Silvermane), a determined newspaper reporter (Lamorne Morris' Robbie Robertson), and the P.I. secretary holding down the fort (Karen Rodriguez's Janet).

"This show is not just a noir and it's not just a superhero [series]. It is absolutely the smashing together of both," Uziel notes.

Nicolas Cage and Lamorne Morris on 'Spider-Noir'
Credit: Prime Video

Nicolas Cage and Lamorne Morris on 'Spider-Noir' (in color)
Credit: Prime Video

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He recalls another later meeting with Cage, this one at the Smoke House Restaurant in Burbank when they already had some scripts to show the actor. At the table, Cage launched into an entire interrogation scene as Edward G. Robinson, another prominent face from the golden age of noir.

"Every day on set when we talked in his trailer, he would come to work with, 'This bit is gonna be Bogart from The Big Sleep. This bit is gonna be a little bit of Cagney. You're gonna see some Peter Lorre here,'" Uziel continues. "He gets so much joy out of it. That's why he's Nic Cage."

on Entertainment Weekly

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