At a glance, Spider-Noir — Prime Video’s live-action twist on Into The Spider-Verse‘s scene-stealing Spider-Man variant — has it all. Nicolas Cage. Slick noir stylings. Critical acclaim. 11 Emmy nominations. Five stars from Empire Magazine. But despite delivering a knockout first season, there is one thing Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot’s Great Depression set treatment of Marvel’s egg-cream-drinking, Nazi-punching, Humphrey Bogart homaging webslinger doesn’t have: a second season. Yes, per Variety‘s reporting, Spider-Noir has been cancelled at Amazon after a mere eight episodes and just one single season.
The first series to come out of Amazon’s agreement with Sony Pictures TV to develop series based on characters from SPUMC (that’s the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters to the uninitiated), Spider-Noir proved an instant hit when it dropped on Prime Video and MGM+ back in May. Bringing viewers into the world of former Spider-Man turned PI Ben ‘The Spider’ Reilly (Cage), Uziel and Lightfoot’s show — produced by Spider-Verse movie maestros Phil Lord and Chris Miller — pitted Cage’s retired wallcrawler against Brendan Gleeson’s crime boss Silvermane while reimagining comic book faves like Black Cat and Robbie Robertson in the process. At this stage, no reason has been given for the show’s cancellation, though we may look to its relatively short time in Prime Video’s Top 10 charts and significant production costs (the show was filmed in both black-and-white and colour, lest we forget) for potential factors at play in Amazon’s decision making.
Despite learning Spider-Noir won’t live to swing another day, it’s not all doom and gloom, true believers. For starters, the show’s first season functions perfectly well as a limited series offering, and remains incredibly satisfying and rewatchable as it already is. And, buried within the news of Ben Reilly getting his P45 is also the tease that Amazon is already actively pursuing another SPUMC project that could be set to receive an official announcement imminently. Who knows? Maybe whatever the folks at Prime Video and Sony are plotting next might get a little further than Spider-Noir managed. One thing’s for sure: it’ll be a hell of a tough act to follow.
