Despite the box office failures of Morbius and Madame Web, Sony is still determined to move ahead with establishing a live-action Spider-Man shared universe. The latest addition to the so-called Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is Noir, a live-action series starring none other than Nicolas Cage as the gun-toting, fedora-wearing vigilante Spider-Man Noir.
It’s the latest eyebrow-raising announcement from Sony, a studio still struggling to establish a coherent live-action Spider-Verse to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or Sony’s own animated Spider-Verse, which surely helped make Noir a reality). And while this announcement may be a step in the right direction for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, it doesn’t go far enough to fix what ails this cinematic universe. Here’s why we’re underwhelmed by this news.
Spider-Man Noir: A Step in the Right Direction
Easily the most perplexing thing about Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is the almost complete lack of Spider-Man. To date, these movies have focused on villains and supporting characters from the Spider-Man franchise, practically bending over backward to avoid including Spidey himself.
The Venom movies found a way to rework Eddie Brock’s origin story to eliminate Peter Parker, with Tom Hardy’s Eddie and Tom Holland’s Peter only meeting indirectly thanks to Eddie’s short-lived journey to the MCU in the post-credits scene of 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage. In 2022’s Morbius, Jared Leto’s character only learns of Spider-Man’s existence when Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes shows up to recruit him to… do whatever it is Toomes is planning. To date, the only actual appearance of Spider-Man in these movies comes in 2024’s Madame Web, where we see Mary Parker give birth to baby Peter.
Presumably, this almost complete lack of Spider-Man isn’t due to a lack of desire on Sony’s part, but rather the complex working relationship between the studio and Marvel. So long as Holland’s Spidey is active in the MCU, Sony seems forced to make do with side characters and villains. Morbius suggests Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is slowly establishing a version of the Sinister Six, and we may see that process continue in the upcoming Kraven the Hunter, but what’s the endpoint here? What purpose does a Sinister Six serve with no Spider-Man to fight?
The Noir series addresses this fundamental flaw by introducing, if not the Spider-Man of Sony’s shared universe, then at least a version of him. Noir makes a clean break from the rest of the SSMU by focusing on a separate universe where Cage plays “an aging and down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York.” This beleaguered character will be forced to contend with becoming New York’s first and only superhero in the dark days of the Great Depression.
If Noir is anything like the Spider-Man Noir comics, we can expect something the SSMU has so far failed to deliver - a fully realized world where Spidey exists alongside his greatest foes and most important supporting characters. The original two Spider-Man Noir miniseries introduce versions of Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Kraven the Hunter, Black Cat, Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson, Robbie Robertson and Ben Urich, among other characters. If that full cast of characters is available to the Noir series, it’ll go a long way toward making up for the fragmented and scattershot approach of Sony’s recent Spider-Man spin-off movies. It’s a Spider-Man series that’s actually allowed to feature Spider-Man?
Or is it?
The Problem With Spider-Man Noir
Apart from a basic plot description, a list of attached producers and the fact that Cage is starring, we don’t know a great deal about the new Spider-Man Noir series. However, there are some troubling signs that suggest the new series perhaps won’t be as immune to Sony’s Spider-Man problem as we’d like.
For one thing, there’s the title of the series. It’s simply titled “Noir,” not “Spider-Man Noir,” and that seems like a significant omission. We can’t imagine Sony would willingly exclude “Spider-Man” from the title, which suggests they simply can’t use the Spider-Man name in the marketing of these projects.
There’s also the fact that the official description of the series specifically omits the name of Cage’s character. He’s described as “an aging and down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York.” The name Peter Parker is never mentioned. He’s also referred to as “the city’s one and only superhero,” not Spider-Man.
This all raises the question - is Cage still playing Peter Parker in the series, or is the character being rewritten to become someone else entirely? Will he become Spider-Man in the series, or will it resort to another codename like “Noir” or “The Spider”? How many storytelling limitations does Sony face in this live-action project? Are we still seeing yet another example of a Spider-Man-adjacent story that can only obliquely reference Spider-Man? Will the show be barred from using characters that have appeared elsewhere in the SSMU or MCU?
Even if the full scope of the Spider-Man Noir universe is open to the series, there’s also the problem that Spider-Man Noir isn’t necessarily the most exciting toy box in which to play. The Spider-Man Noir comics seek to ground the character and his world. Many of the larger-than-life trappings of the franchise are sanded down to fit the gritty 1930s setting. Even Spidey’s powers are toned down, with the character relying more on guns and stealth than high-flying acrobatics. Is that really what Marvel fans want out of a live-action series?
Yes, there’s an undeniable appeal in the idea of Cage getting to play a live-action version of the character he voiced in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But we can’t help but wonder if Sony overestimates the power of that casting. This is the same studio that misread the memes surrounding Morbius and rereleased the film to more disastrous box office numbers. Just because Twitter is pro-Cage doesn’t mean the world is crying out for a Spider-Man Noir show. The character works better as he is in the Spider-Verse movies - one kooky hero among many.
The truth is that there are other alternate universe Spider-Men and Women more deserving of a live-action series. Why not focus on Spider-Gwen or Spider-Punk, the two breakout characters from the Spider-Verse movies? Spider-Gwen’s alternate reality, Earth-65, is practically begging for a series to truly mine its fascinating depths.
But ultimately, whichever version of Spider-Man is the focus, Sony’s goal is the same. They need to prove they can finally build a cohesive and fully realized Spider-Man universe in live-action again. No more pointless villain origin stories or superfluous films with flimsy ties to Peter Parker. There’s no reason the MCU should have a monopoly on great, live-action Spider-Man content.
For more on Spidey's cinematic future, brush up on every Marvel movie and series in development and every Spider-Man project in development.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
