Nicolas Cage’s ‘Spider-Noir’ Earns a Wild Early Reaction Comparing It to ‘Batman The Animated Series’

The first wave of buzz around Nicolas Cage’s long-awaited Marvel series ‘Spider-Noir’ has officially landed, and the early word is electric. Industry critic Grace Randolph of Beyond the Trailer took to X to share her reaction after screening the show, calling it “amaaaaaazing” and pitching it to fans with a comparison that immediately got Spider-Man and DC fans alike paying attention.

According to her, the Prime Video series plays like Spider-Man meets ‘Batman The Animated Series’, a description that points squarely at the moody, art deco neo-noir aesthetic that defined Bruce Timm and Paul Dini’s iconic Gotham. The full review embargo lifts on May 22nd, but Randolph’s social tease has already set the bar sky high.

For anyone who hasn’t been tracking the road to release, ‘Spider-Noir’ is the live-action expansion of the hardboiled web-slinger Cage first voiced in ‘Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse’. The eight-episode series stars Cage as Ben Reilly, 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, known here simply as The Spider. It marks Cage’s first lead role in a television series and reunites him with his ‘Spider-Verse’ collaborators on a far grittier, street-level canvas.

The show is the product of a powerhouse creative team. Sony Pictures Television produces exclusively for MGM+ and Prime Video, with ‘Fleabag’ and ‘Killing Eve’ director Harry Bradbeer helming and executive producing the first two episodes. Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot serve as co-showrunners, having developed the series alongside the team behind ‘Spider-Verse’, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal. The supporting cast is just as stacked, featuring Lamorne Morris as Robbie Robertson, Li Jun Li as Cat Hardy, Karen Rodriguez as Janet, plus Jack Huston and Brendan Gleeson, the latter rumored to be a 1930s riff on the Marvel villain Silvermane.

Tonally, the series has been pitched from day one as something that breaks the usual superhero mold. Speaking at the Deadline Contenders TV event, executive producer Phil Lord told Deadline that the show is “a big character drama, it is an amazing mystery, it’s a big event television, but it’s also light on its feet”. Miller has gone even further, describing Cage’s performance as 70 percent Humphrey Bogart and 30 percent Bugs Bunny, which, paired with Randolph’s ‘Batman The Animated Series’ comparison, paints a very specific picture of where this thing lives on the genre map.

There is also a unique presentation gimmick that fits the noir vibe perfectly. The series is being released in both a black and white version and a fully colored version, marketed as Authentic Black and White and True-Hue Full Color, giving viewers a choose your own adventure approach to Cage’s hardboiled detective. Cage hoped the dual release would inspire audiences to become interested in early black and white noir films, doubling down on his very public love of cinematic history.

For Cage personally, the stakes here are massive. His live-action superhero history has been famously cursed, from the canceled Tim Burton ‘Superman Lives’ to the critical drubbing his ‘Ghost Rider’ duology received. ‘Spider-Noir’ has a real shot at flipping that narrative on its head, especially with a creative team this stacked and early reactions this enthusiastic.

The series premieres May 25th on MGM+ in the United States before dropping globally on Prime Video on May 27th, with the first full reviews arriving May 22nd. If those land anywhere near Randolph’s tease, Cage’s web-slinger may finally be the comic book role that defines him.