“Spider-Noir” Teaser Reveals Nicolas Cage’s Live-Action Spidey Series
While Nicolas Cage is rightly credited for being unafraid to unleash the most gonzo depths of any of his characters’ psyches, he’s perhaps not acclaimed enough for his voice. It’s instantly recognizable, always a touch off-kilter even when he’s playing someone admirably stoic, or southern-fried, like his felon-with-a-heart-of-gold Cameron Poe in Con-Air. In the first teaser for Prime Video’s Spider-Noir, we hear that voice immediately, as we see images, appropriately in black and white and loaded with classic noir touches, of his life as Ben Reilly, aka Spider-Man Noir. The new series, created by Oren Uziel (The Lost City), who serves as showrunner alongside Steve Lightfoot (The Punisher), tracks the aging and down-on-his-luck private investigator in 1930s New York, a Gotham without Batman (this is Marvel, after all), and only Ben serving as the city’s lone superhero.
The teaser is pleasingly intense—nobody wants a Nic Cage Spider-Man show to be even remotely mild—with images that speak to Ben’s paranoia. “Ticks, thoughts, impulses, I manage to suppress them,” he says. “Most of the time.” So what happens when Ben doesn’t suppress them? Well, he dons his Spider-Man Noir masks and takes out those ticks, thoughts, and impulses on bad guys, sometimes enjoying a beverage (or seven) afterward, as he explains here.
The show has a killer logline—“with no power comes no responsibility” — a clever reversal of the iconic Spider-Man mandate: Peter Parker’s uncle, Ben, admonishes Peter to use his considerable powers for good. Spider-Noir also offers viewers another novelty in the Spider-Man world; you can watch the series in black and white or in full color.
This is the first time Cage has had a leading TV role, and it looks to be tailor-made to his charms and skills. He’s joined here by Lamorne Morris (Fargo), Li Jun Li (Sinners), Karen Rodriguez (The Hunting Wives), Abraham Popoola (Slow Horses), Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire), and Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin).
Spider-Noir swings onto your TV on May 27. Check out the teaser below.
Featured image: Nicolas Cage in “Spider-Noir.” Courtesy Amazon Prime Video.
