The peacock spider is a tiny Australian arachnid<\/u><\/a> whose bristles are mostly shades of gray, but it can also flash a vibrant spectrum of colors to make itself more attractive. The new web-slinging detective series Spider-Noir <\/em>has the same ability.<\/p>\n The Nicolas Cage<\/a>-starring TV show, which will stream this spring on Prime Video, will be presented in both black and white<\/a> that mimics the monochromatic look of 1940s crime classics. But it also will be shown in a version that looks more like the colorful panels of the Marvel Comics that serve as its inspiration.<\/p>\n For this exclusive first look at the show, Esquire is also displaying both formats at once. In this story, we display the full-color version, and speak to showrunner Oren Uziel <\/u><\/a>and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller<\/u><\/a> about all the different ways they\u2019ve taken Spider-Man\u2019s Marvel Universe and refurbished it as a 1930s detective tale. The other half of this first look is our interview <\/a>with Cage<\/a>, where you can see how Spider-Noir<\/em> looks in luminous grayscale. <\/p>\n Both formats were created so that viewers could choose their own preference. \u201cThe truth is, they both work and they’re beautiful for different reasons,\u201d Cage tells us. \u201cThe color is super saturated and gorgeous. I think teenage viewers will appreciate the color, but I also want them to have the option. If they want to experience the concept in black and white, maybe that would instill some interest in them to look at earlier movies and enjoy that as an art form as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicolas Cage indulging the various bad habits of his gangland detective.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Either way, Uziel, the co-showrunner of Spider-Noir<\/em>, says he hopes it feels like a relic from another time. Even the color version doesn\u2019t look precisely modern. \u201cIt looks like a black and white film that’s been kind of colorized,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was one of the inspirations for how to do it.\u201d <\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t the exact same process. Rather than record the series in monochrome and paint-by-number the images after the fact, as early colorization did, the on-set cameras captured digital footage that was split and processed into the two different formats. To keep it in layman\u2019s terms, they then adjusted the dials to create something that had every color of the rainbow, but the feel of something bygone. <\/p>\n The result of each changes the vibe of the show, with the color version veering more toward the lighthearted comic-strip crime capers of Dick Tracy, while the black and white conjures the sinister moral abyss of the novels of Raymond Chandler. The Spider-Noir<\/em> team even came up with a Technicolor-style branding for the way they crafted their colorized version: True-Hue. \u201cThere\u2019s even a font for it,\u201d Lord says. \u201cThey made a little logo,\u201d Miller adds.<\/p>\n The logo that will matter most to fans, however, is Marvel. <\/p>\n Spider-Noir<\/em> is a direct spin-off of the Spider-Man alternate universes first established in the 2018 Oscar-winning animated film Into the Spider-Verse<\/em>. That\u2019s when Cage first voiced the character of a 1930s detective with the same web-slinging skills and sixth sense for danger that all versions of the hero possess. But how different was the rest of the world he called home, and what kind of cases might the hero investigate in his own desperate Depression-era version of New York City?<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the biggest no-brainer of all time,\u201d Miller says. \u201cWe called up our buddy Oren, who we worked with before, who we knew was the biggest noir aficionado we knew. And he came up with a take that was perfect.\u201d Uziel, who had worked with Lord and Miller as a writer on 22 Jump Street,<\/em> teamed up with co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot (The Punisher<\/em>, Shantaram) <\/em>to shape the story. The web of spider-expertise was broadened behind-the-scenes by Amy Pascal, who has overseen the Spider-Man<\/em> franchise for more than two decades, first as a Sony Pictures executive when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were the web-slinger, and then as a producer of the Tom Holland version and the animated Spider-Verse<\/em> films focused on the Miles Morales character.<\/p>\n Top o\u2019 the world, ma \u2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n That depth of spider history was important because Spider-Noir <\/em>was taking some big swings through the corridors of old New York (no pun inten\u2014nevermind, why not.) Although Cage voiced a variant of Peter Parker in the Spider-Verse<\/em> movies, his fedora-wearing gumshoe in the Spider-Noir <\/em>series would have a different real-life alter ego. This hero is Ben Reilly, who was introduced into the Marvel Comics in the mid-\u201970s as a contemporary clone of young Parker, known as the Scarlet Spider<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n In the show, Reilly\u2019s masked crimefighting persona is also not called Spider-Man\u2014he\u2019s just The Spider, a callback to other early heroes of this era like The Spirit, and The Shadow. There were several reasons for the Ben Reilly change-up. The main one was the nature of noir storytelling itself. <\/p>\n The genre is not defined strictly by black and white, or the long-ago era, or even a morose tone (The Big Lebowski<\/em> is a particularly funny film noir, for example.) The definition of \u201cfilm noir\u201d has been up for grabs ever since the term originated in the mid-1940s to describe movies that delved into the shadowy side of human nature. A broad summary of the genre might be: a cynical hero discovers the world is even darker than expected.<\/p>\n In other words, Spider-Noir<\/em> could not be an optimist. \u201cPeter Parker feels very synonymous with a high school kid. Boyish. On his way up,\u201d Uziel says. So they chose a clone character whose backstory could be more easily adjusted to fit a pessimistic misanthrope. <\/p>\n \u201cThis character’s very different from the Peter Parker from the movies. He’s older and jaded, and not afraid to punch a guy in the face drunkenly,\u201d Miller says, while Lord chimes in: \u201cHe already had his Chinatown<\/em> disillusionment moment that happened years and years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n The view from the P.I.\u2019s office looks out over a landscape of low morals and high desperation in Spider-Noir<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n So, instead of a kid coming of age while dealing with surprising new powers, Spider-Noir is a guy whose hero complex has collapsed into a mid-life crisis. \u201cBen Reilly has already gone through the entire arc and has seen it all. He\u2019s over it, and trying to move past it,\u201d Uziel says. \u201cBut his past kind of keeps coming back to haunt him. It’s just a different version that we haven’t seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n The change in identity is also a mystery the producers say will be addressed in the show itself. \u201cI have to be coy about the reasons, because you’ll find out,\u201d Lord says. \u201cThe reason he’s named Ben Riley is explained,\u201d Miller adds. \u201cWe\u2019ll leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n Cage tells Esquire that he saw his Reilly performance as \u201c70 percent Humphrey Bogart, and 30 percent Bugs Bunny,\u201d given that there\u2019s a comedic side to the mystery story. But the producers say he also gave them a different description of what he was trying to do. \u201cNic brought all of this thinking to the character that really surprised us and was kind of a headslapper,\u201d Lord explains. \u201cHis take on it was like, \u2018I’m a spider trying to cosplay as a human.\u2019 He’s code-switching. Inside his body, he feels like an animal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s why you cast Nicolas Cage,\u201d Miller says. \u201cHe’s going to come at a character in a way that no one else would think of.\u201d<\/p>\n Every Spider-Man also needs some amazing friends. Spider-Noir is surrounded by several characters drawn from the Marvel Comics pantheon who have been refashioned as hard-boiled archetypes. <\/p>\n Among them is Robbie Robertson, a familiar face in the newsroom of the Daily Bugle. This version is still a journalist, but pounding a freelance beat looking for stories from the heart of the city. He\u2019s Reilly\u2019s friend and collaborator, played by Lamorne Morris<\/u><\/a>, best known for the sitcom New Girl<\/em>, his role as Garrett Morris in Saturday Night<\/em>, and his Emmy-winning turn as a fatally honest midwestern cop in season 5 of Fargo<\/em>.<\/p>\n Lamorne Morris as intrepid reporter Robbie Robertson, always on the search for wrongdoers \u2026 and a good freelance job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n \u201cThey’re both investigators,\u201d Uziel says of Reilly and Ben. \u201cThey both go back a long way. Their friendship has really deep ties. The biggest and most obvious difference is that Robbie is a guy who almost carries around a rabbit’s foot. He thinks he’s lucky, and it’s all going to work out. Ben is a character who thinks it’s never going to work out. It’s all going to go to shit. Life’s a big disaster. So Ben’s cynicism is kind of an opposing force to Robbie’s optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n That requires an actor who can suggest optimism without seeming like a chump. \u201cRobbie’s living in the \u201830s and the Depression, and he’s going through it, but he walks into any room thinking he can talk himself through whatever problem finds him,\u201d Uziel says. \u201cAnd Lamorne is so effortlessly charming, he’s able to pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n Reilly\u2019s other major support pillar is his trusty secretary Janet, played by Karen Rodriguez (The Hunting Wives<\/em>, and Acapulco<\/em>.) In addition to fielding calls and setting appointments, she\u2019s a pretty good investigator on her own, and she\u2019s a resourceful Girl Friday when Reilly needs help keeping everything together. <\/p>\n Janet isn\u2019t drawn from a particular Marvel character, but she does come straight out of a film noir tradition. \u201cShe’s as original of a creation as one can have when we’re at this point in storytelling,\u201d Uziel says. \u201cIn The Maltese Falcon<\/em>, her name is Effie. There\u2019s always this character that can be helpful, that the P.I. can lean on, that can be hard on him, but loves him. Janet is never going to let Ben off the hook, but she cares so much about him. It’s a little three-headed team: Ben, Janet, and Robbie. They’re always solving the cases together in their own way.\u201d<\/p>\n Karen Rodriguez as Janet is not wasting time on the job\u2014she\u2019s doing research<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n No film noir would be complete without a femme fatale, and that role is filled out by Cat Hardy, played by Li Jun Li<\/u><\/a>, a nightclub chanteuse who lures Reilly into the underworld conspiracy at the center of the series. Comics fans will immediately draw a connection between her nickname and Felicia Hardy, better known as the master thief Black Cat<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n Li has become known for channeling women from this era of history. She\u2019s probably best known as grocery proprietor Grace Chung in the Oscar-juggernaut Sinners<\/em><\/a>, but she also portrayed early Hollywood trailblazer Anna May Wong <\/u><\/a>in 2022\u2019s Babylon<\/em>. Wong was among the temptresses who served as inspiration for Cat, but there were others.<\/p>\n \u201cReally, she\u2019s Rita Hayworth, who was so great in Gilda <\/em>and Lady from Shanghai<\/em>, and then a little bit of Lauren Bacall, because Bogey and Bacall go so well together,\u201d Uziel says. \u201cThere’s some Kim Basinger from L.A. Confidential,<\/em> in terms of how she fits into everything. She’s an amalgam of a lot of different things.\u201d<\/p>\n Li Jun Li as Cat Hardy, who sings sweetly, even if it\u2019s a siren\u2019s song that lures some to disaster.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n The story of Spider-Noir<\/em> focuses on a gangland boss known as Silvermane<\/u><\/a>, played by Brendan Gleeson<\/u><\/a>, who has been the subject of repeated assassination attempts. Maybe that\u2019s just one of the hazards of his business, or maybe there\u2019s a broader scheme at play. Reilly starts to believe something\u2019s amiss when an arsonist suspected of setting a blaze at Silvermane\u2019s mansion reveals he can spark fire from his hands. Then Reilly runs afoul of hired muscle named Flint Marko<\/u><\/a> (Boardwalk Empire<\/em>\u2019s Jack Huston<\/u><\/a>), who invites him to go pound sand\u2014a.k.a. engage in fisticuffs.<\/p>\n \u201cIn all the great detective stories, you have two cases that sort of come together and you realize you’re actually working the same thing,\u201d Uziel teases. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy getting dragged into a much larger fight that he doesn’t really want to be a part of. Silvermane is the big bad, but what’s happening to Silvermane connects back to Ben’s past and gets him spiraling deeper and deeper into his own origins.\u201d<\/p>\n That ties back to a constant theme in Spider-Man stories of all kinds: Who am I? <\/em>Whether it\u2019s a kid growing up, or a world-weary fellow in a fedora, the question remains the same, even if the answer to the mystery changes.<\/p>\n
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