Spider-Noir EXPLAINED
Spider-Noir EXPLAINED
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re breaking down everything you need to know about the show “Spider-Noir” and its titular hard-boiled webslinger. We’ll be getting into spoilers for the Spider-Man Noir character and potential spoilers for the show, so consider this your warning!
Spider-Man Noir’s Origins:
Spider-Man Noir debuted in February of 2009 in issue one of a comic book that was appropriately named “Spider-Man Noir”. In the story we meet Peter Parker in the year 1932 on Earth-90214. This version of him had a pretty similar path in life as the normal Earth-616 Peter Parker, but there were some key differences. This Peter Parker was well past his high school years, meaning his life as a costumed crimefighter wouldn’t start until he was already an adult. His Aunt May and Uncle Ben also weren’t an everyday traditional couple, instead they were social activists knee-deep in trying to right systemic wrongs and stick it to the corrupt big wigs. In fact, Uncle Ben was a World War 1 fighter pilot who after the war took aim against the gangster Norman Osborn, better known as the Goblin. Sadly the Goblin’s crew of thugs would inevitably catch up to Ben and kill him in retaliation. Actually that’s putting it lightly, a cannibalistic version of Adrian Toomes literally ate the man alive! Yikes.
This canon event rattled Peter and he soon embarked on a quest for revenge that saw his path cross with reporter Ben Urich. They’d work closely together and one fateful night Peter learned about some shady happenings at a nearby warehouse and decided to go there to investigate it. What he found were some thugs smuggling ancient artifacts, including an antique known as a Spider Idol. This artifact was accidentally broken and once it did it released a swarm of deadly spiders, one of which bit Peter. Spider-Man Noir’s story only gets weirder from here. The spider-bite knocked Peter out and led to a dream where he met Ereshkigal, aka the Spider-God. Yeah that’s right, Peter basically had a “come to Spider-Jesus” moment. After this he gained some incredible spider powers and a new sense of direction. By taking Uncle Ben’s World War 1 uniform and repurposing it into a costume, Peter decided to avenge his uncle’s death. In his pursuit of justice he officially became Spider-Man, and well, the rest is pretty much history. It’s worth mentioning that instead of the traditional red-and-blue this Spider-Man rocks all black. A black trench coat, black gloves, and black goggles. Not to mention he also carries a revolver at all times. Yeah, this Spidey doesn’t mess around. He’s willing to kill if that’s what it takes to get the job done.
He was essentially created to be part of a new publishing wave in Marvel called “Marvel Noir”. The goal for this bold initiative was to take iconic characters and recontextualize them to be part of the grungy detective noir Great-Depression era of the 1930s. There’s actually a whole slew of other characters that happen to be in this imprint. Some names include Iron Man Noir, Daredevil Noir, Punisher Noir, even X-Men Noir, and many more. That being said, Spider-Man Noir was easily the breakout character of this brand.
A Crash Course on Ben Reilly
Considering that we already mentioned how Spider-Man Noir is Peter Parker, it might seem odd to pivot now and talk about Ben Reilly, but there’s a reason behind that. The upcoming “Spider-Noir” show is actually going to be following Ben as the main character instead of Peter. It’s a pretty intriguing switch-up but we’ll talk more in depth about that creative departure later. For now we’re going to give you guys a crash course on clones!
Ben Reilly first broke into the comics in issue 149 of “The Amazing Spider-Man”. He was a clone of Peter Parker created by a mad scientist named Miles Warren, aka the Jackal. Ben and Peter’s lives would become entangled ever since Ben showed up. They clashed a couple of times in what was known as “The Clone Saga”. The name sounds pretty cool, but it was actually one of Spider-Man’s most hated storylines. We won’t get into all the reasons why it didn’t work but the long short is Marvel wanted to replace Peter with Ben and fans weren’t having it. Though he got off to a rough start with the readers Ben would eventually come into his own as a beloved hero. He’d also tow the line between good and bad several times but he’s most popular when he’s on the side of the angels. As a hero Ben managed to have a stint as Spider-Man a few times but he really found his footing as the Scarlet Spider. At his core, Ben’s a clone, an imitation, a copy of someone else, so whenever he can carve out an identity for himself it resonates a lot with fans. He’s actually not the only Peter Parker clone, there’s also his brother Kaine, a troubled hero in his own right, but Ben’s undoubtedly the breakout of the two. And with that in mind it seems like Ben Reilly is getting some more time in the spotlight.
The Premise of the Show
Way back in early 2023 Sony turned some heads when they greenlit a “Spider-Man Noir” show. The live-action series would be a partnership between Sony and Prime Video, a streaming service owned by Amazon, and MGM+, also owned by Amazon. Since 2023 we learned a lot more about what this project would shape up to be. It’s officially titled “Spider-Noir”, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the architects of the animated “Spider-Verse” movies are developers on it. Aiding them in the quest to make this thing a reality is their showrunner Oren Uziel, who has also collaborated with Lord and Miller on other projects before. The basic idea for the series is that it follows Ben Reilly in Great Depression era New York. Ben’s a grizzled down-on-his-luck private eye who’s already retired from his crime-fighting life as ‘The Spider’ due to a tragedy. But a new threat forces this hardboiled gumshoe detective to resume life as a hero to protect the city.
“Spider-Noir” is releasing in two different ways. You can watch the whole thing in black and white if you want to truly immerse yourself and get the real noir vibes. Or, if you prefer, you can watch it in true-hue full color to see all those wonderfully vibrant costumes and setpieces. Either way you watch you’re going to be in for some pure webslinging action!
We mentioned earlier that “Spider-Noir” is focusing on Ben Reilly instead of Peter Parker and there’s a couple of reasons for that. In an interview with Esquire, Oren talked about how this was a story the team imagined more fitting for someone different from Peter Parker. To many people Peter is a highschool kid with a heart of gold. And even though he sees a lot of harrowing danger he still has a certain amount of innocence to him. With Ben however they can delve into much darker territories. They want to show a version of the wallcrawler that’s jaded and in many ways broken down by the system. Think of it like how Jack Nicholson’s Jake Gittes is broken down at the end of “Chinatown”.
But beyond the story reason for using Ben, there’s another potential reason for using Ben Reilly instead of Peter Parker: legalities. Look, the “Spider-Man” rights are one nasty tangled web. While Sony technically owns the character they also have a deal to share him with Marvel Studios in order to make those giant MCU tentpole summer blockbusters. While the MCU can do Spider-Man movies, the deal prevents Disney from using Spider-Man in live-action tv. And while Sony owns the rights, they also seem to have some restrictions because of the deal. Just look at the Spider-Man-adjacent villain movies they’ve made. That’s an entire freaking universe centered on characters connected to Spider-Man but the wallcrawler doesn’t show up in them.
Heck, even the show’s name being “Spider-Noir” instead of “Spider-Man Noir” suggests that there’s some sort of red tape going on behind the scenes. Regardless, we don’t know all the ins and the outs but what we know for certain is that Ben Reilly is taking the reins now.
The Cast
The star of this show is Nicolas Cage who’ll be bringing Ben Reilly to life. Cage also portrayed Spider-Man Noir in “Into The Spiderverse” so this role is hardly a new one for him. That being said, this live-action portrayal is not the same version as the animated counterpart. Interestingly this show is also going to be Nicolas Cage’s first major television role. While he’s obviously an established cinematic titan it’s going to be exciting to see how he takes to television.
Joining Cage are a whole slew of other names. Brendan Gleeson for example is attached to portray Silvermane, a cutthroat mob boss who has a sworded history with Ben. He won’t be the only thorn in Ben’s side though as Jack Huston is portraying Flint Marko aka the Sandman. Several other villains are sure to be in the mix too. A character with deadly electricity-based powers named Megawatt will be appearing, played by Andrew Lewis Caldwell. Abraham Popoola is going to crash onto the scene too as the vicious Tombstone. In addition there’s a character who could potentially be Molten Man lurking around. We also have Li Jun Li as the femme fatale Cat Hardy: a new spin on Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat. It’s possible she’ll become Ben’s love interest or at least have a history with him. Ben’s close colleague Robbie Robertson will be played by Lamorne Morris while Karen Rodriguez will play Ben’s assistant Janet.
Small Screen, Big Impact
Let’s take a pause from stating all the facts to really digest what’s happening here because sometimes we can get lost in the sauce. This is a live-action Spider-Man tv show! Do you know how long it’s been since that’s happened? Here’s a hint: so long ago that Jimmy Carter was the president. Jokes aside, it really has been a while. Way back in 1977 CBS had “The Amazing Spider-Man”. This TV show (not to be confused with Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man) starred Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker. The show only lasted about two years and had some success in the ratings initially but eventually dwindled in support and was later cancelled. There was also the Japanese Spider-Man show. It starred Kōsuke Kayama as Takuya Yamashiro and was happening around the same time as the CBS series. The Japanese version was truly bonkers though. Like seriously, Japanese Spider-Man called himself an emissary of Hell and piloted a giant robot to fight monsters. It’s crazy pants.
We’re probably not going to see Nicolas Cage do any of that, but we are going to get a Spidey whose adventures are tailor-made to be enjoyed from the comfort of your own home. It’s been literally decades since we’ve had a live-action “Spider-Man” tv show so this is kind of a big deal. Sure, there’s some legal caveats with “Spider-Noir” but don’t get it twisted, this is Spider-Man at the end of the day, and that’s awesome.
That Wonderful Spider-Synergy
“Spider-Noir” releases all eight episodes on Prime Video on May 27th. Then just a little over two months later in the summer we get “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” on July 31st. Plus a little later in the fall we’ll be treated to season two of “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man”. Are you recognizing a pattern here? We’re getting gifted back-to-back-to-back Spider-Man stories, all crazy in their own ways. So many different versions of our favorite wallcrawler all within a couple months of each other means we’re in for a serious treat. 2026 is shaping up to be the year of Spider-Man and the hype train starts with “Spider-Noir”.
The Future of Sony’s Spider Stories
We’re at a really interesting point in time in comic book media and a show like “Spider-Noir” getting made is proof of that. It’s too early to tell what will happen but Sony has the potential to make some major moves depending on how this project plays out. Phil Lord even suggested that “Spider-Noir” could continue into a second season. But what about beyond this pulpy detective drama? Well, perhaps Sony could embrace utilizing more of their spider characters. No, we don’t mean making “Madame Web 2” or resurrecting “El Muerto”. What we mean is telling more out-there stories with fan-favorite webslingers. Who knows, maybe we could get a live-action Spider-Man 2099 series, or a live-action adaptation of Superior Spider-Man. Heck, Ben Reilly’s clone brother Kaine would be ripe for a prime-time program. It’s fun to speculate on the future but regardless of what they do let’s get back to what’s happening right now: “Spider-Noir”. The series promises to be a bold, action-packed, and fresh take on Spider-Man and we’re here for it!
Are you excited for “Spider-Noir”? Let us know if you’re watching it in black-and-white or in color. And what other Spider-Man related projects do you think Sony should make? Swing down to the comments and tell us!