The Big Picture

• Nicolas Cage is set to star in a live-action Spider-Man Noir series, marking his first television role since 1981.
• Noir will delve into the gritty world of a down-on-his-luck private investigator with a superhero past.
• Cage will also return to the animated Spider-Verse in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.

Nicolas Cage is officially back on the case and back in the Spider-Verse. After all the teasing and rumors about his involvement in Christopher Miller and Phil Lord's live-action Spider-Man Noir series, Prime Video confirmed at its inaugural upfront presentation that the project has been greenlit with Cage as the lead for what will be his first television role since the ill-fated pilot The Best of Times in 1981. Titled Noir, it's slated to make its debut in the U.S. on the linear MGM+ channel before streaming on Prime Video worldwide.

Based on the Spider-Man Noir comics beginning in 2009, the series will embrace its gritty 1930s New York setting as it follows a grizzled, down-on-his-luck private investigator grappling with his current career and past life as the city's only superhero. Cage originated the character in animated form on the big screen with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where he served as a mentor and ally to Miles Morales. Noir will go beyond his greyscale facade and looks to paint a complicated portrait of the fan-favorite hero that is anything but black-and-white. It's a chance for Cage to revisit a character whom he has expressed plenty of love for and described as a mash-up of sorts with his "favorite golden age performances, i.e. Robinson, Cagney, Bogart..."

While Lord and Miller are attached as executive producers with Amy Pascal, The Lost City's Oren Uziel and The Punisher's Steve Lightfoot are at the helm for the series as co-showrunners. To add to the star power of Noir's production team, Emmy-winning Fleabag director Harry Bradbeer has been tapped to direct the first two episodes. Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios have also joined forces to help make the hotly-anticipated project a reality. As promising as the Noir creative team is, Sony's president Katherine Pope hit on how important it was to bring Cage's experience in to anchor everything. “We are absolutely thrilled to have Nicolas Cage starring in this series! No one else could bring such pathos, pain, and heart to this singular character," she said. "Along with our brilliant producers and partners at Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video, we couldn't ask for a better team to explore this reimagining of such an iconic character in Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters."

Cage Is Also Set to Return to the Animated Spider-Verse

While Cage's solo Spider-Man adventure is now moving full speed ahead, he also has some business to take care of beyond his world in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. The ending of last year's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse saw the original multiversal spiders, including Noir, Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), and Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), join Spider-Gwen's (Hailee Steinfeld) task force to save Miles (Shameik Moore) from the clutches of his evil Earth-42 counterpart and, in turn, save the Spider-Verse. Cage will join an expanded team made up of Spider-Man (Jake Johnson), Spider-Man India (Karan Soni), and Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) among others, with Lord and Miller promising even more new variants in the trilogy capper. Unfortunately, the film was delayed indefinitely last year and could be eyeing a 2025 release.

Stay tuned here at Collider for more on Noir as work gets underway on the live-action superhero detective series. Visit our full guide here for updates on everything we know as news breaks.