Would you believe that in the year 2026, Nicolas Cage is finally making his TV debut, and it’s not in a prestige HBO drama or Apple TV book adaptation? No, one of America’s most singular movie stars is thwip-ing to the small screen because of Spider-Noir, the character he voiced in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. He’s a spider-man. Who’s also a 1930s private eye. I still have a hard time believing that this show actually exists. Even after getting to watch it in both black and white and color.
Inspired by the 2009 comic book Spider-Man Noir, the character is one of several Spider-Man variants young Miles Morales meets in Spider-Verse. In the film, he gets only a quick introduction, but it’s a memorable one. “I like to drink egg creams and I like to fight Nazis. A lot,” he growls in voice-over. “Sometimes I let matches burn down to my fingertips just to feel something, anything.” In short, what if Sam Spade got spider powers? There’s a lot of story potential in that. But to see it actually become a TV show is still surprising, especially a TV show this well-executed.
Renamed Ben Reilly (showrunner Oren Uziel told Empire that “Peter Parker feels very synonymous with a high school kid. Boyish”), the super-powered detective secretly known as The Spider has tried — like so many other supes before him — to leave his life of masked crime-fighting behind. Then a case comes along that might save his failing private investigation agency. The only downsides are that it might get him killed by the local mob boss Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson), and it definitely plunges him back into the thick of danger.
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Ben’s investigation leads to some confrontations with equally super-powered individuals: Without going into detail about who specifically shows up, being set in an alternate universe of its own means that Spider-Noir can create its own 1930s versions of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery — and also tweak the traditional bitten-by-a-radioactive-spider origin story. (Ben’s version features some disturbing imagery.)
Ben’s not facing this danger on his own, thanks to allies like savvy newspaper reporter Robbie Robertson (Lamorne Morris) and a sassy secretary (Karen Rodriguez). There is also, of course, a femme fatale played by Li Jun Li from Babylon and Sinners. You better believe she’s a lounge singer. These and more touches are essential toSpider-Noir feeling like a real ongoing TV show meant to last more than one season, an intention confirmed by the fact that it’s competing as a comedy, not a limited series, for this year’s Emmys.
What’s also cool is that unlike, say, the way that Pedro Pascal “plays” the Mandalorian, Cage is a very present and active part of Spider-Noir. As many bad/weird/forgotten movies as he’s made in recent years, this man has never phoned in a performance, and Spider-Noir features him getting very Cage-y… admittedly sometimes to the point of distraction.
Spider-Noir (Prime Video)
It’s not often, but every once in a while, he’ll sing a little song about his love of cheesecake or make sitting in an armchair into a three-course meal of scene chewing, and it feels like a little too much Cage-ness is peeking through, breaking the illusion. Otherwise, his commitment to the hard-boiled James Cagney drawl really does sell the strange yet delightful reality of this series.
Every supporting cast member is a standout, with Lamorne Morris delivering a world-weary smoothness that highlights a lifetime’s worth of frustration over the era’s casual racism, and Li Jun Li bringing some real nuance and depth to the femme fatale tradition. Brendan Gleeson also elevates the series with the innate gravitas of his presence, even if playing a baddie of this type feels like an easy lay-up for him. And Jack Huston, Andrew Lewis Caldwell, and Abraham Popoola bring plenty of humanity to their villainous characters.
The production features a ton of care and attention to detail — something that might be anticipated considering that Phil Lord and Chris Miller are executive producers. Amongst their many acclaimed credits, including this year’s Project Hail Mary, is the Apple TV series The Afterparty, which featured a ton of richly detailed genre parodies. (Season 2 even included a noir episode.)
Spider-Noir (Prime Video)
Costumes, set design, and hair and make-up all work in concert to sell the period setting beautifully — and then there’s the cinematography, which leads to the show’s most unconventional twist — Prime Video is making every episode available in both black-and-white and color. To write this review, I adopted a strategy of alternating between them, which worked pretty well, especially because, thanks to the “Previously on…” segment at the start of each episode, there was an opportunity to see how earlier scenes looked with the alternate shading.
Both versions have their benefits: The monochrome approach heavily emphasizes shadow and contrast (an appropriate tribute to the noir genre), but the “True-Hue Full Color” version leans heavily on saturated hues for a rich Technicolor feel. If you only wanted to watch one version, color might be my recommendation. But they’re both gorgeous.
No matter how you choose to watch it, Spider-Noir hews closely to the familiar tropes of the detective tale, but it never feels like parody. It just feels like the answer to the question “What if someone made a 1930s noir about a P.I. with spider powers?” I cannot express how much pleasure I take in typing those words. It still makes no sense that this show exists. But it’s wonderful that it does.
All eight episodes of Spider-Noir begin streaming May 25th on MGM+ and May 27th on Prime Video. Check out the latest trailers below.
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