Prime Video has canceled “Spider-Noir,” its Nicolas Cage-led Marvel noir series, after just one eight-episode season — delivering the news on Sept. 4 even as the show heads into its first weekend of Emmy ceremonies. It was Cage’s first-ever regular TV role.
The cancellation lands with a twist: “Spider-Noir” heads into Emmy weekend holding 11 nominations, the most of any Prime Video program this year, and carries a solid 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 90% “popcornmeter” vote from fans. It also logged 2.6 billion viewing minutes in its first six weeks on the platform, per Nielsen.
A No-Go for Season 2
“Spider-Noir” was the first Marvel-related series to premiere out of Amazon’s pact with Sony Pictures TV to develop stories from the “Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters.” Based on the comics character Spider-Man Noir, it was adapted for television by Oren Uziel and set during the Great Depression, starring Cage as Ben Reilly, a down-on-his-luck private investigator in 1930s New York forced to reckon with his past after a personal tragedy.
Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston and Brendan Gleeson co-starred. Uziel and Steve Lightfoot (“Marvel’s The Punisher”) served as showrunners, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller executive producing alongside Amy Pascal.
“I designed my performance for black and white, and I’m glad I saw it that way,” Cage said of filming a series that streamed in both color and black-and-white.
The show originally premiered on the linear MGM+ channel on May 25 before landing on Prime Video the next day, with viewers able to watch each episode in color or monochrome. Sony notes its oversight includes more than 900 Marvel characters tied to the Spider-Man franchise; a second series from the partnership is already in development and expected to be announced soon.
Earlier efforts under the same deal hit snags — “Silk: Spider Society,” with Angela Kang attached as showrunner, was scrapped before reaching the screen, which made “Spider-Noir” the arrangement’s first release.
Why It Matters
“Spider-Noir” was the rare streaming swing that paired genuine critical goodwill — a 92% critics’ score and a truckload of Emmy nominations — with a bold, offbeat premise, only to be cut down anyway. For fans of Cage’s unhinged-yet-committed performances and for the broader Marvel-on-streaming slate, it is a bracing reminder that even well-reviewed, awards-nominated genre TV is not safe from the chopping block. With a second Sony-Marvel series on the way, the question now is whether the next one will be given the room “Spider-Noir” never got.
