On Sep. 4, Amazon officially cancelled the Nicolas Cage-fronted Marvel series Spider-Noir after a single season on Prime Video.
Cage, who played web-slinging private detective Ben Reilly (a closely-related variant of his Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse character) harbored no ill will towards the streamer.
“For me, one season is perfect, having said what I wanted to stay with this dangerous, innovative, pop-art Spider-Man,” he said in a statement to Deadline. “Onwards, upwards, inwards.”
Given the fact that Spider-Noir imagines an alternate version of 1930s New York where superheroes are real, one can’t help but wonder what kind of parallel history the Emmy-nominated show would have continued to forge in a sophomore season.
According to creator, showrunner and executive producer Oren Uziel, Reilly may have taken his hardboiled investigative services to another major city inextricably linked with film noir.
Spider-Noir Boss Reveals Plans for Season 2 Following Series Cancellation
“If I had my druthers, it would be probably another location,” Uziel told Variety. “There are so many L.A. noirs we could have dove into. There are European noirs we could have dove into. There are other places to go. You’re starting in 1933. Where is that heading? It’s heading toward just a most cataclysmic time—World War II. There was a lot of storytelling that could have happened there.”
From The Big Sleep to Chinatown, L.A. and noir go together like chocolate and peanut butter, or, more appropriately, Humphrey Bogart and jewel encrusted bird statues. The stark contrast you get when pairing sunshine and glamor with murder and corruption works so beautifully.
The idea of Ben Reilly plying his trade in Hollywood does sound pretty awesome, but Uziel is happy with where the story ended up.
“We made a very closed-ended show,” he explained. “There’s a reason we were honoring these old noirs. The story begins when the client comes into the private detective’s office, and it ends when they solve the case. So, it was nicely buttoned up. We told a story. It felt a little bit like a long movie. So, it’s bittersweet to not get right back to work with this cast and crew. But also, I have no regrets.”
Spider-Noir received eleven Primetime Emmy nominations, winning five of them at the Sep. 6 Creative Arts ceremony: Outstanding Title Design, Outstanding Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series, Outstanding Cinematography For A Series (One Hour), Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Single Episode and Outstanding Stunt Coordination For Comedy Programming.
