For the most recent chapter in Sony’s Spider-Verse, Spider-Noir creator and co-showrunner Oren Uziel was already a fan of the noir genre and Spider-Man before he signed on. That meant he and actor-producer Nicolas Cage could spend more of their time, all the best way back to writing the pilot, unpacking a single query: “What if we made a Bogart movie where Bogart just happened to be Spider-Man?”
“Each day he’d come to set with a special reference: ‘That is Bogart from The Big Sleep, that is going to be Peter Lorre. That is going to be Edward G. Robinson,’” Uziel, whose own inspirations included Third Man, Double Indemnity, The Thin Man, His Girl Friday, L.A. Confidential, Miller’s Crossing and Casablanca, said of Cage’s commitment to shaping the character and world. “Beyond that, we didn’t have the desire to make a version of Spider-Man that anyone had seen before. Nic was never going to try this.”
The primary season, which drops on Prime Video on May 22, expands the story of Spider-Man Noir, who made his animated onscreen debut in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. “They’re connected needless to say. There’s inspiration being taken there,” Uziel said. “But whenever you’re making an eight-episode television series, you’re going to actually expand it and broaden it. In live motion, you get to see so rather more of Nic’s performance and you’ll be able to really fully realize Recent York within the ’30s.”
“We just were like, if that is the world, it’s the ‘30s and that is the guy, where does that take us?” added co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot. “All of it starts and ends with the character, and we were just doing such a special version, who has wider powers, that every part led from that. He’s older, he’s wiser, he’s possibly somewhat less excited to do all of it.”
Originally dubbed Noir, the show was retitled to Spider-Noir ahead of its release to raised encapsulate its mixing of genres, said executive producer Dan Shear. “It’s really a merging of two genres. We’re telling a noir, but we’re also telling a Spider-Verse show and the title represents the intersection of those genres, which type of creates a 3rd recent thing that we hadn’t seen before.”
For producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the TV series needed not only to capture elements of the noir genre, but additionally, “it must be funny. Nic is a funny person. Spider-Man was all the time quippy. And a few of our favourite noirs are really funny, but additionally emotional,” Miller explained. “Because the show gets weirder, you’re letting Nic be Nic, after which also a few of the crazy stuff they were doing within the surrealist horror noir space of the period gave the impression of an incredible opportunity.”
Cage’s co-stars saw the actor’s full-bodied commitment to delivering on the Spider-Noir universe helped elevate what actor Lucas Shaw described as a brand new type of “badass adult” version of Spider-Man and one where Sandman actor Jack Huston said the heroes and villains do “develop into a little bit of their very own metaphor and that’s a wonderful thing.”
“Nic is unlike another actor you’ve ever seen. He pulled from Bugs Bunny to play this character,” said Lamorne Morris, who portrays Robbie Robertson, a journalist and friend of Cage’s Reilly. “His whole thing is he’s a spider attempting to learn find out how to be a human. Whereas I feel other characters are the reverse — they’re humans playing the spider and I feel it’s a very unique tackle it.” Added Brendan Gleeson, who portrays the series lead antagonist, mobster Silvermane: “It was only a joy to be working with Nic since you toss it across and it comes back with twice a spin on it.”
Cage not only stars but additionally serves as a producer, supporting the series through its “True Hue” color journey, headed up by colorist Pankaj Bajpai. “It was essential to me to get the series made, and I knew there was lots of trepidation about it being shot in black and white,” the actor and executive producer said on Wednesday’s carpet. “I could tell that a few of the folks within the studio were nervous. So I said, ‘You don’t only need to shoot it in black and white; it’s also possible to get teenagers, who is perhaps watching, by shooting in color with almost a colorized feel. And possibly that’ll make them thinking about watching it in black and white.’”
From left: Chris Miller, Nicolas Cage and Phil Lord on the premiere.
Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Prime Video
It was a plan that the whole creative team got behind, said Miller, who told THR the team agreed they were “gonna shoot it with intention for black and white” and “not switch it on the last second” from the start. That single decision affected every part from performances to the music to cinematography.
Ahead of the series’ release, reports of budget disagreements between the manufacturing team and Sony Pictures Television emerged, but Shear clarified any budgeting conversations were addressed early within the production process. “Before production, Amazon got here to us and asked us if we could also make a color version of the show to go along with it — two versions of the show for the audience. We accepted the challenge, worked out our plan for it and it was really seen as an efficient, effective production,” Shear said on the carpet.
For Cage, releasing the most recent chapter in Sony’s Spider-Verse in black and white wasn’t nearly staying true to the period and type of his specific Spider-Man. “I designed my performance to suit throughout the black-and-white format, but my dream is that [young viewers] will see the black and white after they do the colour, and so they’re going to want to have a look at the old movies, all that great wealth of American cinema that we have now, and all these great old actors, and what they were doing, what that style was like,” he explained. “I also say, it doesn’t matter if a 13-year-old doesn’t know who Humphrey Bogart is. It really works.”
The show’s explicit decision to cross period with modernity might also work in its favor when it comes to capturing a younger audience, no matter which version they watch it in. “We desired to be truthful to the period, but we never wanted it to feel like a pastiche,” said co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot. “We wanted it to be its own thing, and if you happen to’re writing a show now, it’s hopefully going to talk to now. If you look back at those old movies, they’re very of their time, and we desired to be certain that that our show felt now despite the fact that it’s set prior to now.”
As for the long run of the series, Miller “could be completely satisfied to do more,” with Lord continuing, “We’re television producers. We’re not gonna say no.”
“One in all the magical things about any private detective story is, if you happen to want one other story, all it takes is one other client to knock on that door, after which comes a brand new set of cases, a brand new set of problems and a brand new adventure to go one,” Uziel added. “So [it’s] conceived to be as many seasons as we wish to go.”