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Sony’s live-action Spider-Noir series, starring Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly, has launched on Prime Video with both black-and-white and colorized cuts available.
Sony and Amazon MGM Studios’ live-action Spider-Noir series is now streaming on Prime Video, with Nicolas Cage headlining as a brooding noir-era variant of the web-slinger. The show is being released in two cuts: a black-and-white version that mirrors the source material’s tone and a colorized alternate.
The series is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the hard-boiled crime dramas of Hollywood’s Golden Age, set in a 1930s alternate-reality New York where Ben Reilly (Cage) operates as both a former vigilante known as The Spider and a private investigator working out of a downtown office.
The central case is engineered for genre. Reilly takes a job from femme fatale and nightclub singer Cat Hardy, played by Li Jun Li. The investigation drags him face-to-face with local mob boss Silvermane, played by Brendan Gleeson, and his squad of dim-witted goons.
The Verge’s walkthrough of the series, including its cast and the tonal tightrope between noir homage and superhero comedy notes that Reilly’s investigation eventually pulls in superpowered characters including Flint Marko, played by Jack Huston. Reilly’s secretary Janet, who has worked with him for five years without recent paychecks, is played by Karen Rodriguez.
The show is Sony’s latest attempt to monetize Spider-Man-adjacent characters without involving Marvel directly. The studio’s previous solo efforts include the Venom trilogy and last year’s Madame Web. Critical reception across those projects has been uneven; Spider-Noir is the latest test.
Cage’s involvement carries franchise weight. The actor voiced a different Spider-Man Noir character in Sony’s animated Spider-Verse films, but Spider-Noir is built around an entirely different character (Ben Reilly, not the unnamed Cage-voice variant from the animated movies). The Verge points out that the show’s commonalities with Marvel’s 2009 Spider-Man: Noir comics, the nominal source material, are limited.
The genre setup is the most successful element. Aesthetically, the production leans hard on the 1930s detective look: period costumes, smoky interiors, monochrome staging in the black-and-white version. The Verge’s social broadcast of the review and its black-and-white screenshots circulated on Mastodon overnight, drawing genre-fan discussion.
The show sits inside a busy week for Amazon’s superhero output. The streamer’s TV Trailers of the Week roundup, covering Spider-Noir alongside Vought Rising’s 2027 launch and the WB Lanterns DC series, captures how heavily streaming platforms are leaning on superhero IP this cycle.
Spider-Noir’s marketing has emphasized the dual-cut presentation. Subscribers can choose black-and-white or color, with the black-and-white version positioned as the directorially preferred experience.
Cage’s character anchors the series across the season. The supporting cast and creative team have not been publicly confirmed for additional seasons.
Critics are divided. Some have praised the aesthetic; others, the Verge included, have framed the show as a Sony attempt to extend the Spider-Verse brand without the animated films’ narrative invention.
The series is available now on Prime Video.
