Feb 11, 2026
3 min read
At first glance, Nicolas Cage plays a powerful private eye that is attracted to trouble by Femme Fatale Lee Jun Lee.
The spider is a tiny Australian arachnid whose bristles are mostly shades of gray, but can also flash a bright spectrum of colors to make it more attractive.The new detective series Spider-Noir has the same ability.
The Nicolas Cage-starring TV show, which will run this spring on MGM+ and stream on Prime Video, will be presented in black and white that mimics the monochrome look of the 1940s crime classic.But it will also be presented in a version that looks more like the colorful characters of Marvel Comics that serve as its inspiration.
To see this special look first in the show, he also shows both styles at the same time.In this story, we give full color, and we talk with Oren Uziel of the show and the producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller about all the different ways they took Spider-Man's Marvel Universe and reinvented the story of the 1930s.The other part of this first look is the interview we did with Cage, where you can see how Spider-Noir looks like a gray scale.
Both formats are created so that viewers can choose their preference.“The truth is, they both work and are beautiful for different reasons,” Cage tells us.
Either way, Spider-Noir's co-showrunner Uziel says he hopes it feels like a relic from another era.Even the color version doesn't look modern."It looks like some kind of colorful black-and-white film," he says."That was one of the inspirations for how to do it."
But it wasn't exactly the same process.Instead of shooting the series in black and white and paint-by-numbers, post-production photos, as early colorization did, the on-set cameras captured digital images that were split and processed into two different formats.To keep it simple, they then adjusted the dials to create something that had all the colors of the rainbow, but gave the feeling of something that had passed.
The results of each changed the show's tone, with the color version leaning more toward Dick Tracy's gritty crime hero, while the black-and-white version recalled the moral corruption of Raymond Chandler's novels.The Spider-Noir team even came up with a Technicolor-style brand for the way they create color versions: True-Hue."There's even a font," Lord said.“They made a little sign,” Miller added.Do
But the most important logo for fans is Marvel.
Spider-Man Noir "Spider-Man" is based on the parallel universe first established in the 2018 Oscar-winning animated film "Into the Spider-Verse."This is the first time Cage has voiced the dangerous 1930s detective character, who has the same web-casting skills and sixth sense that all versions of the hero have.But how different the rest of the world he calls home is.What kind of cases will the heroes investigate in desperate Depression-era New York City?
"This is the biggest thing of all time," Miller said."We called our friend Oren, we worked together before, we knew it was the best noir we know. And we came up with a really good version."Uziel, who worked with Lord and Miller as a writer on 22 Jump Street, worked with Steve Lightfoot (The Punisher, Shantaram) to create the story.The web of spider expertise was expanded behind the scenes by Amy Pascal, who managed the Spider-Man franchise for more than twenty years, first as the director of Sony Pictures when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were the webmasters, then the creator of the version Tom Holland and the Spider-Verse animated films focused on the character of Miles Morales.
The depth of Spider-Man's history was important because Spider-Noir made some big changes in the corridors of New York (no pun intended, why not.) Although Cage voiced a variation of Peter Parker in the Spider-Verse films, the rubber-shoe series will have another real life in Spider-Noir.In the 1970s, as a modern clone of the young Parker known as the Scarlet Spider.
In the show, Riley's masked crime figure was not even called Spider-Man - it was just Spider-Man - it was just Spider-Man - it was just Spider-a trick for other early heroes of this era, such as Ghost and shade.These factors are varied for the change of Benly Really.Some of these consequences are due to the nature of noir narrative itself.
The genre isn't defined in black and white, or long ago, or even earlier (The Big Lebowski is essentially comic film noir, for example.) "Film noir" has been defined since the term began in the mid-1940s to describe films that delve into the shadows of human nature.it's dark
In other words, Spider-Noir couldn't be more optimistic."Peter Parker feels very synonymous with high school, a guy on the road," says Uziel.So they chose a clone character whose story can easily relate to a pessimistic person.
"This character is very different from the Peter Parker of the movies. He is old and tired, and he is not afraid to punch a drunkard in the face," says Miller, while Lord adds: "He already has his moment of confusion in Chinatown that happened years and years ago."
So instead of a kid growing up and dealing with new amazing powers, Spider-Noir is a guy whose hero fell into a mid-life crisis."Ben Reilly has been through the whole arc and seen it all. He's been through it and he's trying to get through it," Uziel says.But his past still haunts him.It's a different type that we've never seen before.
The identity change is also a mystery that producers say will be addressed in the show itself.“I have to be coy about why, because you're about to find out,” Lord said."It's explained why he's called Ben Reilly," said Lord.“We'll just leave it at that.”
Because the mystery story has a comedic side, Cage says he saw Reilly's performance as "70 percent Humphrey Bogart and 30 percent Bugs Bunny."But producers say he also had a different interpretation of what he wanted to do."Nick brought all these ideas to the character that really surprised us and was kind of unsettling," Lord explains."He was like, 'I'm trying to cosplay as a human.'Old man.'It was code-switching.He feels like an animal inside his body."
"That's why you cast Nicolas Cage," says Miller."He's going to take on a character that no one else would think of."
Every Spider-Man also needs great friends.Spider-Noir is surrounded by several characters drawn from the Marvel Comics pantheon reimagined as tough archetypes.
Among them is Robbie Robertson, a familiar face in the Daily Bugle newsroom.This is still a journalistic edition, but it comes alive with stories from the heart of the city.He's Riley's friend and co-worker, played by Lamorne Morris, best known for the sitcom New Girl, his role as Garrett Morris on Saturday Night Live and his Emmy Award-winning role as an honest Midwestern cop in the fifth season of Fargo.
"They're both investigators," Uziel says of Reilly and Ben."They both have a long history. There's a really deep connection in their friendship. The biggest and most obvious difference is that Robbie is a guy who's almost walking the rabbit's foot. He thinks he's lucky and it's all going to work out. Ben's a character who thinks it's never going to work out. It's all happening in Ben's life."is.The opposite force to Robbie's optimism."
It requires an actor who can project optimism without looking like a jerk."Robbie lived in the 1930s and the depression, he went through that, but he went into every room thinking he could talk himself into any problem that came his way," Uziel said."And Moran was so effortlessly charming, he could do it."
Reilly's other pillar of support is his trusted secretary Janet, played by Karen Rodriguez (The Hunting Wives, and Acapulco.).In addition to making calls and appointments, she is a good investigator herself and a resourceful girl when Reilly needs help putting everything together.
Janet doesn't come from any particular Marvel character, but comes straight from a film noir tradition."It's as original a creation as you can get when we're at this point in the narrative," says Uziel."In The Maltese Falcon, her name is Effie. There's always a character who can be helpful, who the private investigator can lean on, who can be tough on him, but she loves him. Janet will never let Ben get away with anything, but she cares a lot about him. It's a little team of three heads: Ben, Janet and Robbie. They're always solving cases together in their own way."
No film noir is complete without a woman and in this role is Cat Hardy, played by Lee Joon Lee, who lures Reilly into an underworld conspiracy.Comic fans will immediately make the connection between her nickname and master thief Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat.
Lee became famous for channeling women during this period of history.She's probably best known as supermarket owner Grace Chung in The Sinners, but she also played Hollywood leading lady Anna May Wong in the 2022 film Babylon.Wong was among the temptresses who inspired the cat, but there were others.
"Really, she is Rita Hayworth, who was so great in Gilda and Lady Shanghai, and then a little Lauren Bacall, because Bogey and Bacall are so good," says Uziel.
The story of Spider-Noir focuses on a crime boss known as Silverman, played by Brendan Gleeson, who has been the target of multiple assassination attempts.Maybe it's one of the dangers of his business, or maybe there's a bigger plan.When the suspected arsonist who burned down Silverman's house discovers that he can start fire from his hand, Riley begins to believe that something is wrong.Riley Flint then collides with a muscle-for-hire named Marco.(Boardwalk Empire's Jack Huston), invites him to hit the sand — roughing it.
"In all good detective stories, when you put two cases together, you realize you're doing the same thing," Uziel joked."He's a guy who's been dragged into a bigger fight that he has no desire to be a part of. Silvermane is the big bad, but what happens to Silvermane ties into Ben's past and makes him dig deeper into his roots."
This ties into the recurring theme of the various Spider-Man stories: Who am I?Whether it's a growing child or a worldly dude in a fedora, the question remains the same even as the answer to the mystery changes.
