A new trailer for MGM+ and Prime Video's Spider-Noir was released last night, and executive producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller have now confirmed that the series is a fully standalone Spider-Man tale.
We've known for a while that this version of the web-slinger isn't connected to the animated Spider-Man Noir featured in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (for starters, Nicola Cage is playing Ben Reilly instead of Peter Parker). So, unlike movies like Venom and Morbius, Spider-Noir isn't Sony's attempt at creating a small-screen Spider-Man "universe."
"The origin story was this was a character that we developed in the first Spider-Verse movie, and we had an amazing time working with Nic Cage," Miller told Deadline. "And when the idea of us making a live-action Spider show came up, this was the first idea that we had, because it felt like it was a contained universe. It was its own thing."
Adding that he and Lord "didn’t want to do something that’s part of some giant web of interconnected series. It’s just its own little jewel of a story. It’s a big jewel. By little, I mean an enormous jewel. It’s the Hope Diamond of television," he went on to describe Spider-Noir as "a detective story, but the detective happens to also have spider powers."
Lord credits Amy Pascal with giving them the confidence to tell such an offbeat Spider-Man story. "[She] always taught us about Spider-Man is it’s not about flying around. It’s about what’s going on inside these guys and how challenged they are trying to live their lives as human beings and also live their lives as heroes at the same time."
One thing that's apparent from Spider-Noir's trailers is that it's part-detective story, part-horror, and part-comedy. Cage was crucial in helping them find the right tonal balance for this adaptation, creating a character who is 70% Humphrey Bogart and 30% Bugs Bunny.
"One of the things that you don’t think about with Noir is that you’re like, 'It’s super serious,'" Miller shared. "But Bogart always had a twinkle in his eye and he was always doing something clever, and he and Bugs Bunny have more in common than you might think."
Lord added, "Yeah, there’s like a playfulness to it, right? And there’s a playfulness to Nic – I think that’s why he’s so iconic and there’s a playfulness to [showrunner] Oren [Uziel], who we worked with on the Jump Street movies. And so the idea is that the show is: it is a big character drama, it is an amazing mystery, it’s a big event television, but it’s also light on its feet."
There have always been alternate versions of Spider-Man. However, the introduction of the Spider-Verse has opened the door to there being countless Variants of Peter Parker, or spider-themed heroes in general.
That opens the door to Sony developing any number of TV shows (and movies) revolving around web-slinging heroes, something that must be a priority for the studio after its villain-led features underwhelmed.
Spider-Noir's cast includes Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage (Adaptation), Emmy Award-winning actor Lamorne Morris (New Girl), Li Jun Li (Sinners), Karen Rodriguez (The Hunting Wives), Abraham Popoola (Atlas), with SAG Award-winning actor Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire), and Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin).
Guest stars include Lukas Haas, Cameron Britton, Cary Christopher, Michael Kostroff, Scott MacArthur, Joe Massingill, Whitney Rice, Amanda Schull, Andrew Caldwell, Amy Aquino, Andrew Robinson, and Kai Caster. Oren Uziel (The Lost City, 22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (Marvel's The Punisher, Shantaram) serve as co-showrunners and executive producers.
All episodes of Spider-Noir premiere on Prime Video on May 27.