Nicolas Cage is known for many things: buying dinosaur bones, being cursed by a haunted mansion, and even purchasing an octopus to help with his acting. But above all, he is a capital-M movie star who has spent 45 years making films for the big screen. That changed with Spider-Noir, an Amazon Prime Video series set in an alternate 1930s universe where Cage plays Ben Reilly, also known as The Spider. It marks the first time in his career that he has starred in an ongoing TV series.
How Oren Uziel Convinced Cage
Showrunner Oren Uziel, the man who brought Cage to television, disputes the idea that he had to twist the actor's arm. “Twist his arm would be a little strong,” Uziel told Metro. “He was familiar with the character, and he loves comic books. I think he wanted to hear from me and learn what type of show I wanted to make.”
Uziel and Cage engaged in extensive discussions about their shared love of film noir. “We just really went back and forth about all the film noirs that we love as well. It’s not just comic books, and he is encyclopedic in his knowledge of film noir and cinema itself,” Uziel explained. Once Cage felt comfortable with the direction and the ambition to create something “cinematic,” he was on board.
The Noir Films That Won Him Over
While Uziel did not name a single film that sealed the deal, the pair bonded over classics like The Third Man, In a Lonely Place, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, and Night of the Hunter. Uziel believes his deep knowledge of noir excited Cage because it proved he “cared about the same things [Cage] does.”
Cage’s Unique Approach to Ben Reilly
Known for his larger-than-life acting style, which he calls Western Kabuki, Cage brought unexpected depth to the role. “1,000,000% I think when you work with someone like Nick, he’s going to bring a point of view, and that’s why he’s the legend that he is,” Uziel said. “I had a very clear picture of what I wanted, but I also knew that Nick was going to play the role, and we worked on it together.”
Throughout the season, they collaborated to ensure they were not just making another version of Spider-Man. “As we got deeper into it, we realized what happened to him to make him become The Spider affected him so deeply down to a cellular level. It changed him more than we can imagine, and it’s almost harder for him to be human at this point than it is for him to be a spider,” Uziel added. Watching Cage inhabit that physicality and emotionality was “amazing.”
Why Ben Reilly, Not Peter Parker?
Fans have wondered why this Spider-Man is not a Peter Parker variant. Uziel dismisses Reddit theories about rules preventing Peter Parker from drinking or smoking. “I think that’s Reddit getting, running away with itself. There weren’t really hard rules put in place. I think they understand this is a show that takes place in the noir world, and these characters drink and smoke, and that they’re living in that space in 1933. So we did what we wanted to do.”
Violence and Support from All Sides
The show’s violence, particularly in the third episode, surprised many. But Uziel says there was no pushback. “No, no, it was really this show is interesting because we got so much support from all sides of what we were trying to do. I think that they understood if you’re making Spider-Noir, if you’re making a Spider-Show set in the 1930s in a film noir world, these characters have to behave like that or it’s a betrayal, I think, of fans of both genres.”
Spider-Noir premieres on 27th May 2026 exclusively on Prime Video in the UK.
