Nicolas Cage broke his silence Sunday on Prime Video’s decision to cancel “Spider-Noir” after a single season, framing the ending as a deliberate stopping point rather than a disappointment. “For me, one season is perfect, having said what I wanted to say with this dangerous, innovative, pop-art Spider-Man,” Cage said in a statement to Deadline. “Onwards, upwards, inwards.”
Prime Video and MGM+ announced the cancellation Sept. 4, roughly three months after the series debuted and just as it entered awards season with 11 Emmy nominations, the most of any Prime Video series this year. The show carried a 92 percent critics score and a 90 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and Nielsen data showed it drew 2.6 billion streaming minutes in its first six weeks. Industry observers have pointed to the series’ high production budget weighed against respectable but unspectacular viewership as the likely driver behind the decision.
Co-showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot developed “Spider-Noir” for Sony Pictures Television, with Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal among the executive producers. Cage played Ben Reilly, an aging, down-on-his-luck private investigator in 1930s New York confronting his past as the city’s sole masked hero, a role adapted from the Marvel Comics character he previously voiced in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” The series released episodes in both color and black-and-white versions after premiering on MGM+ on May 25 and arriving on Prime Video two days later.
Cage told reporters earlier this year that he drew on classic Hollywood film noir to build the character, citing directors like Howard Hawks and pulling specifically from Fred MacMurray’s performance in “Double Indemnity” to shape his delivery and mannerisms. Despite the cancellation, the season one finale left narrative threads open, and the cast, including Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez and Brendan Gleeson, closed out enough storylines to give the season a self-contained ending.
The cancellation has not slowed the show’s awards run. “Spider-Noir” collected five Creative Arts Emmy Awards this weekend, covering categories including cinematography, sound editing and visual effects, with additional nominations still pending at next week’s Primetime telecast.
