Holy moly! The first Spider-Noir trailer is right up my street

Luca Fontana

13.2.2026

Translation: Eva Francis

Another Spidey series? Yawn. Or at least, that’s what I thought. But then I saw Nicolas Cage in black and white, sporting a fedora and a bad mood – and my yawn turned into excitement.

Nice. Nice, nice, nice. I can hardly believe this trailer’s real. I must admit, I’m super hyped, although I didn’t want Marvel to do that to me so easily. Turns out all it takes is simulating a bit of style and we’re all acting as if this is the great renaissance. But what can I say? The black-and-white trailer for Spider-Noir truly deserves

a chef’s kiss.

A scene in black and white, rain, cigarette smoke. And in the middle of it all, Nicolas Cage with a fedora on his head and that crazy look on his face. Awesome. I had my doubts – at first I even thought it might be a case of fanservice and Marvel just milking the franchise. After all, the so-called Spider-Man Noir only achieved cult status with the animated hit movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

In the animated version, Spider-Man Noir was also voiced by Cage. The movie worked as a damn good satire of his much more serious comic book original, which isn’t ironic or funny in the slightest. The comic book version of Spider-Man Noir carries a pistol and is a killer. His opponents aren’t shrill lab freaks, but mafia bosses and corrupt elites. And in the style of a film noir, the whole thing’s set in 1933 in an alternative timeline.

I get the appeal. Check out the comic books.

So now the animated Spider-Man Noir’s getting its own live-action series, and Nicolas Cage will once again play the dark Spidey. The live-action Spider-Noir won’t be Peter Parker anymore, but Ben Reilly. By the way, if you’ve been wondering about the hyphen, it’s intentional. In the comic book, he’s called «Spider-Man Noir», in the series, he just calls himself «The Spider» and the series itself is called «Spider-Noir». In the comic book, Ben Reilly’s a clone of Peter Parker. In this series, I’ve no clue who he is. All I know is he’s not Peter Parker.

And that’s a good thing. Personally, I’m not keen on yet another version of «With great power comes great responsibility». And Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Noir is old, cynical and doesn’t want to do anything anymore. No wonder, he’s surrounded by economic crisis, corruption and poverty – in a city that’s devouring itself. Almost sounds like Gotham.

Does that sound like Peter Parker? I don’t think so. Spider-Noir doesn’t work as a coming-of-age story, but as a swan song. As a «Why am I still doing this to myself?» version of a hero who doesn’t really want to be one anymore. That doesn’t just suit Noir, but also Nicolas Cage amazingly well.

Black and white – not a filter

I also really like the decision to release the series in two versions. Yep, two. One in colour, one in black and white. This might sound like a nice extra for nerds at first, but it’s quite a clever conceptual choice.

The colour version is deliberately oversaturated, almost like a recoloured old film or an exaggerated comic panel. The black-and-white version, on the other hand, is based on classic film noir, featuring hard contrasts, deep shadows and little visual distraction. The result? Two moods that tell the same story in a completely different way. Having said that, after this black-and-white trailer, I don’t know why I’d want to see the colour version.

Black and white forces me to pay attention to faces, dialogues and atmosphere. It removes the superhero polish and adds some dirt. In my opinion, it makes the movie more personal and possibly more honest, too. That’s exactly what Spider-Noir is all about. The clue’s in his name – Noir. There can only be one true version!

So, is it all just hype?

Am I letting myself be blinded by an excellently edited trailer and Nicolas Cage? I might be. But the character has substance. The comic was never meant to be ironic. And the setting’s clearly defined. In addition, the concept with the two versions is proof that Marvel’s put some thought into it that goes beyond «Hey, let’s make a dark Spider series».

Maybe that’s not enough to carry a whole series. Maybe it’ll end up being too superhero-heavy and not noir-heavy enough. But at the moment, Spider-Noir feels like something that Marvel – or rather Sony – hasn’t done for a long time: a true genre experiment.

And that’s right up my street.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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