Spider-Noir Gets A Gritty, Glorious First Teaser

Nicolas Cage learns that with no power comes no responsibility in this Spider-Verse spin-off.

It seems like only yesterday we were poring over the first pics from Spider-Noir – and that’s because it was only yesterday – it was the second last thing I wrote about before I choked down my cold dish of gruel and crawled under my thin blanket to revivify myself for another long shift in the word mines. And the first crack of the editor’s barbed whip had barely stopped echoing this morning when I saw that the first teaser trailer had hit my inbox, so let’s have a look.

Spider-Noir Teaser

..and here’s the full colour version for, you know, losers:

Ah, just kidding – you do you, boo. But if you’re only gonna watch it once, watch it in black and white as God and John Huston intended.

What’s the plot?

As the official synopsis rather unhelpfully tells us:

Spider-Noir is a live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir. Spider-Noir tells the story of Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage), a seasoned, down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life, following a deeply personal tragedy, as the city’s one and only superhero.

But the concept is more important than the plot, right? It’s Film Noir Spidey, with all that entails. It’s worth noting that, although Cage voiced the delightfully melodramatic Spider-Man Noir in the Spider-Verse movies, he’s not playing the same guy here, apparently, because of Multiverse. Righto.

Who’s in it?

• Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly, AKA The Spider, an older, grizzled version of Spider-Man who is a down on his luck private investigator and superhero.
• Lamorne Morris as Robbie Robertson, a hard-working freelance journalist who pursues riskier stories to garner attention and progress his career.
• Li Jun Li as Cat Hardy, a femme fatale nightclub singer with ties to an underworld conspiracy.
• Karen Rodriguez as Janet, Reilly’s secretary and fellow investigator.
• Brendan Gleeson as Silvermane, a New York mob boss.
• Jack Huston as Flint Marko, Silvermane’s bodyguard. Did you know his grandad directed The Maltese Falcon? Well, now you do.
• Lukas Haas as another of Silvermane’s henchmen.

Plus Cameron Britton, Cary Christopher, Michael Kostroff, Scott MacArthur, Joe Massingill, Whitney Rice, Amanda Schull, Andrew Lewis Caldwell, Amy Aquino, Andrew Robinson, Kai Caster, Richard Robichaux, and Abraham Popoola.

When’s it out?

Spider-Noir premieres on Prime Video on May 27.

What’s the vibe?

Well, look, I’m in the bag for this by default – I’m an old film noir head from way back, so this kind of pastiche drills right into certain receptors in my brain. But who doesn’t want to see Nic Cage as a grizzled, hard boiled Spidey swinging and punching his way across dirty ol’ Depression-era New York City?