Nicolas Cage starring as Ben Reilly in the 2026 streaming calendar release Spider-Noir already feels like one of those casting choices too strange to be real. But after Cage's voice work in Into the Spider-Verse, it feels like this was whispered into existence by a haunted fedora. OK, fine, by fans. Cage, Spider-Man mythology, 1930s New York, private-eye gloom and a black-and-white presentation? That is a very specific little genre cocktail and, somehow, it makes perfect sense. But then he started talking about actual spiders, and that's when I personally began looking for the nearest rolled-up newspaper.
In a recent interview with The New York Times tied to the upcoming Spider-Man project, Cage discussed the new series and his fascination with old Hollywood performance styles. Also, because this is Nicolas Cage, he even shared thoughts on the spider he found especially interesting. When addressing whether he's own arachnids himself, he said:
Oh, sure. I’ve had spiders, tarantulas. There is a spider that I found fascinating, which is listed as one of the more intelligent animals. It’s called the Portia spider. This spider literally knows what bugs like which tune on his web. So he knows what to play to get the fly and he knows what to play to get the grasshopper. That’s really something that exists!
Nope. Absolutely not. I support science, curiosity and the famously eccentric actor being his authentic self, but a spider that can basically play a tiny murder instrument on its web to lure specific bugs is where I have to say, ‘That’s a no from me, dawg.”
The Portia spider tangent is "so" the Rock star, though, and I mean that as a compliment. This is the same interview in which he connects Spider-Noir to Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, old black-and-white cinema, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney and the idea of using TV as a mass medium to get younger viewers interested in earlier film art. The Face/Off star described the show as a “crazy Lichtenstein collision,” which is exactly the kind of thing I want a Nicolas Cage Spider-Man project to be.
Nicolas Cage Seems To Be Taking The Spider Part Seriously
That is what makes the Portia spider detail so funny and oddly fitting. The National Treasure actor is not just showing up to play “Spider-Man, but noir.” He seems genuinely interested in the project's visual style, the genre history, the physicality, the comic-book roots and apparently the real-world arachnids that make me want to turn every shoe in my house upside down. Just in case.
In the page-to-screen adaptation of the comic book of the same name, Spider-Noir follows the Moonstruck alum as he plays Ben Reilly, a hard-boiled private investigator in 1930s New York who also happens to be a web-slinging superhero. The series is Cage's first major move into television, and it will be available in both color and black-and-white. Per the actor, he hopes the black-and-white version might push younger viewers toward older movies and the actors who helped define that style.
That actually tracks with how the Oscar-winning performer has talked about his career for years. He is always pulling from unexpected places: silent film, German expressionism, pop art, comics, music, whatever strange little signal happens to be crackling through the artistic radio that day. So, sure, why wouldn’t his Spider-Man research include a creepy genius spider that tricks prey with web vibrations?
Still, I need boundaries. I can handle the Con Air lead channeling Bogart. I can handle him going full noir detective in a Marvel-adjacent world. I can handle black-and-white superhero television that sounds like it wandered out of a smoky comic strip, but an intelligent spider that knows what tune to “play” for different victims? No, thank you. You can keep that to yourself, Mr. Cage.
Spider-Noir premieres in the United States on MGM+ on May 25, and it'll drop for Prime Video subscription holders globally on May 27. I will be watching, probably in black and white, and absolutely pretending the Portia spider stayed out of the writers’ room.
