Nicolas Cage Calls Spider-Noir's Cancellation a Relief, and Honestly, Fair
With great power comes great responsibility, and with one season comes a nice long nap.
Nicolas Cage isn't mourning Spider-Noir. In a new interview with IGN, the actor said he was actually relieved when Prime Video decided not to make a second season of the live-action Marvel series (IGN via Yahoo).
When he was asked whether there was still more of Ben Reilly's story left to tell, Cage kept his answer refreshingly simple. "I meant it when I said what I said. It's a perfect season," he said.
Why was Spider-Noir canceled?
Amazon officially canceled the show in September after just one season. Spider-Noir climbed as high as second place on Nielsen's chart of the most-watched original streaming series, with 851 million minutes viewed, but it dropped out of the top spots fairly quickly as other Prime Video series, including Reacher, took over (SlashFilm).
According to Deadline, the show performed well, just not well enough to justify the cost of a period superhero series (SlashFilm).
What did Nicolas Cage say about the cancellation?
Cage first reacted back in September. "For me, one season is perfect, having said what I wanted to say with this dangerous, innovative, pop-art Spider-Man," he told Deadline.
In his new IGN interview, he went even further. "You never wanna get stuck repeating a character and wear out your welcome," he said, before adding that when Amazon didn't pick the show up, his reaction was basically "Whew, thank you!"
What was Spider-Noir about?
The eight-episode series premiered on MGM+ on May 25 before arriving on Prime Video worldwide two days later. Cage played Ben Reilly, an aging, down-on-his-luck private investigator in an alternate 1930s New York who has to deal with his past as the city's one and only superhero (Wikipedia).
The show also let viewers pick between a black-and-white version and a full-color one, which is a pretty cool flex for a superhero series. Critics liked it, too, with a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Is this the end of Cage's Spider-Man?
Probably, at least in live action. Cage first voiced Spider-Man Noir in Into the Spider-Verse back in 2018, and plenty of fans are still hoping that animated version of the character swings back for Beyond the Spider-Verse.
My read is that Cage is right, even if it stings a little. Plenty of great shows get dragged out until everyone stops caring, and Spider-Noir gets to end as a tight, stylish one-season story. A second season could have been fun, but a perfect season is a pretty good way to go out. (Somewhere, a fedora is taking a well-earned vacation.)
Did you watch Spider-Noir? Tell us in the comments.
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