Spider-Noir is going to be the first chapter in Sony’s Spider-Man TV Universe, and will feature a fan-favorite version of the Wall-Crawler. Nic Cage first made his debut as “Spider-Man Noir” in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but now he’s taking the character into live-action with Spider-Noir.
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In the series, Cage will play a variant of Spider-Man named Ben Reilly, “an aging, down on his luck private investigator,” who “grapples with his past life as the only superhero in 1930s New York City, the Spider.” Reilly has been retired from hero work for unexplained reasons until “an exceptional case comes his way,” and “Reilly must become the Spider once more.”
Did Spider-Noir Retire After An Iconic Loss?
The question that’s already hanging over Spider-Noir is why Ben Reilly chose to retire from superhero work. The latest trailers for the Prime Video-MGM+ series have teased scenes that could possibly be flashbacks to a tragic loss Ben Reilly suffered – specifically, his wife or lover being trapped in a car that went into the river, with the Spider unable to reach her and pull her free before the car sinks to the depths. Later in the trailer, Ben is informed by his friend Robbie Robertson (Lamonrne Morris) that he “has been in a hole ever since Ruby died.”
Spider-Noir is doing alt-universe flips on several traditional Spider-Man characters, with lounge singer “Cat Hardy” (Sinners‘ Li Jun Li) looking like an obvious front for this universe’s version of Black Cat; Spider-Man villains Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson), Sandman (Jack Huston), and Tombstone (Abraham Popoola) will all get 1930s Noir variants, as well. Even Cage’s character name, “Ben Reilly,” is a loaded reference to the original clone of Peter Parker, who has been both an ally to and an enemy of Spider-Man.
“Ruby” sounds like it could be a flip on one of Spider-Man’s two primary love interests, Gwen Stacy or (the ruby-haired) Mary Jane Watson. Whichever love interest they use as the reference point for “Ruby,” it looks like Cage’s Ben Reilly will have experienced the same tragic loss that Peter Parker did, when The Green Goblin/Norman Osborn caused the death of Gwen Stacy when tossing her off a bridge; Spider-Man couldn’t get to Gwen in time, and the force of the fall, and the webline that snagged her, cause Gwen’s neck to break, killing her instantly. The loss led to a showdown that ended with Green Goblin inadvertently killing himself, and left Peter deeply traumatized.
If Spider-Noir is keeping the “canon events” of Spider-Man’s life in place, albeit in a slightly different context, then Ben Reilly’s crimefighting career costing him the love of his life is quintessential Spider-Man storytelling. It’s also a great way to root this series in classic Film Noir tropes – namely, the broken detective who is haunted by some traumatic event of his past, which is keeping him from being the best investigator/crime-stopper he can be. In short, it’s everything we hope Spider-Noir will be.
Spider-Noir will premiere its entire season on MGM+ and Prime Video on May 27th.
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