Nicolas Cage on Spider-Man Noir series: eight episodes and monsters

Longlegs star Nicolas Cage voiced the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man Noir in the animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and now he’s set to play the character in live-action for an upcoming MGM+ and Prime Video series that appears to be going by the title Spider-Noir. During an interview with The New Yorker, Cage dropped some quotes about Spider-Noir, mentioning that the show is expected to consist of eight episodes… and it will involve monsters.

Spider-Noir first came up in the conversation when Cage was asked if he sees himself as part of a category of actors. He said, “The fantasy would be that I could try to aspire to be something more Golden Age. You know, something more like James Cagney or Humphrey Bogart. Or Hedy Lamarr or Bette Davis. I wanted to have that kind of aura, you know, like the more enigmatic, you don’t know too much. That’s why I’m not on social media. That’s the thinking, anyway. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens if I do this Amazon show, and they put me in black-and-white. We’ll see if we can get some of that flavor.“

It came up again when he was talking about how he gets ready to play a role: “I like to have two months to prepare for a movie. … I start reading it. I’m a little behind the curve on this next one I’m doing, called The Carpenter’s Son. But I get on the elliptical in the morning. I start reading the script from the front to the back. And then I reverse it and read it from the back to the front. And then I take the biggest—or, I should say, the most dialogue-intense—scenes and get them off the plate first, so they’re in my body. The problem that I have with it, though, is I’m carrying all that around in my head for two months, going through it every day, so that, by the time I get on the set, I’m not thinking about it, just flowing. But that’s a lot of memory retention every day for two months—and then for however long the movie takes. It’s yeoman’s work. So, with this show, if I do this, I don’t know if I’m going to have the time to be that…“

When reminded that TV episodes and their scripts are shorter than movies and their scripts, he replied that Spider-Noir episodes will be, “Forty-five minutes. I mean, it’s eight episodes. So it’s the equivalent of four movies in five months. And I’ve got another movie I’ve gotta prepare for, and then a movie right after it…” He’s a busy guy.

Later in the interview, Cage mentioned, “One of the things that I like about this potential show is that it’s fantasy. It’s not really people beating people up. Monsters are involved.“

Spider-Noir will see Cage taking on the role of an aging and down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero. He’s being joined in the cast by Brendan Gleeson as the villain and Lamorne Morris as journalist Robbie Robertson.

Spider-Noir comes to us from Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (Marvel’s The Punisher), who will serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. Harry Bradbeer (Killing Eve) will direct and executive produce the first two episodes. Uziel and Lightfoot developed the series alongside Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal, the team behind the Spider-Verse movies. Lord, Miller, and Pascal will also serve as executive producers on Spider-Noir.

Are you looking forward to watching Nicolas Cage fight monsters in eight episodes (forty-five minutes each) of Spider-Noir? Share your thoughts on this show by leaving a comment below.