Nicolas Cage’s live action Spider-Man

Somehow, I totally missed the news earlier this summer that Nicolas Cage is starring in a live-action Spider-Noir series for MGM+ and Prime Video (as the kids say, none of these words are in the Bible). 

The series is supposedly called simply Noir, which sounds like a cologne, and is co-created by screenwriter Oren Uziel (whose credits include everything from 22 Jump Street to Mortal Kombat to The Lost City) and producer Steve Lightfoot (an alum of Hannibal, The Punisher, and Narcos). The pair are also serving as co-showrunners. Cage, of course, voices Spider-Man Noir, an alternate universe version of Spider-Man, in the Spider-Verse movies.

But those are animated, and Noir—“when you want her to smush you like a spider…Noir”—is live action, as you can see from these set photos of Cage in action. The concept is that Cage plays an older version of Peter Parker in an alternate dimension that is 1930s New York-esque, and he’s a failing private eye haunted by his past as the city’s lone superhero. The series has attracted a top-notch cast, including newly minted Emmy winner Lamorne Morris, Brendan Gleeson fresh off Joker: Folie à Deux, Li Jun Li, and Jack Huston. Center Stage star Amanda Schull will also appear in the series. Morris is starring as Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson, but Gleeson’s character is only identified as a “New York mob boss”. I would not want to follow in Cristin Milioti’s shoes in playing crime bosses in superhero shows. 

I am curious to see what a live-action Nicolas Cage Spider-Noir looks like. He’s great in the vocal cast for Spider-Verse, but how will that translate to a multi-episode live-action performance? Nicolas Cage commits. Few actors commit to the bit as hard as Nicolas Cage. And he f-cking loves superheroes, so you KNOW he’s not leaving anything on the field. His stint as Superman never worked out—we don’t talk about The Flash—but now he can be a Spider-Man with his face, not just his voice, and I sort of want to see that. I guess that means I’m going to have learn what MGM+ is.