Nicolas Cage attends Prime Video's 'Spider-Noir' world premiere at Regal Times Square on May 13 in New York City.

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For the latest chapter in Sony’s Spider-Verse, Spider-Noir creator and co-showrunner Oren Uziel was already a fan of the noir genre and Spider-Man before he signed on. That meant he and actor-producer Nicolas Cage could spend more of their time, all the way back to writing the pilot, unpacking a single question: “What if we made a Bogart movie where Bogart just happened to be Spider-Man?”

“Every single day he’d come to set with a different reference: ‘This is Bogart from The Big Sleep, this is going to be Peter Lorre. This is going to be Edward G. Robinson,'” Uziel, whose own inspirations included Third Man, Double Indemnity, The Thin Man, His Girl Friday, L.A. Confidential, Miller’s Crossing and Casablanca, said of Cage’s commitment to shaping the character and world. “Beyond that, we didn’t want to make a version of Spider-Man that anyone had seen before. Nic was never going to do that.”

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The first season — which premieres domestically on MGM+’s linear broadcast channel on May 25 and globally on Prime Video May 27 — expands the story of Spider-Man Noir, who made his animated onscreen debut in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. “They’re connected for sure. There’s inspiration being taken there,” Uziel said. “But when you’re making an eight-episode television series, you’re going to really expand it and broaden it. In live action, you get to see so much more of Nic’s performance and you can really fully realize New York in the ’30s.”

“We just were like, if this is the world, it’s the ‘30s and this is the guy, where does that take us?” added co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot. “It all starts and ends with the character, and we were just doing such a different version, who has wider powers, that everything led from that. He is older, he is wiser, he is maybe a little less excited to do it all.”

Originally dubbed Noir, the show was retitled to Spider-Noir ahead of its release to better encapsulate its blending of genres, said executive producer Dan Shear. “It’s really a merging of two genres. We’re telling a noir, but we’re also telling a Spider-Verse show and the title represents the intersection of those genres, which kind of creates a third new thing that we hadn’t seen before.”

For producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the TV series needed not only to capture elements of the noir genre, but also, “it should be funny. Nic is a funny person. Spider-Man was always quippy. And some of our favorite noirs are really funny, but also emotional,” Miller explained. “As the show gets weirder, you’re letting Nic be Nic, and then also some of the crazy stuff they were doing in the surrealist horror noir space of the period seemed like a great opportunity.”

Cage’s co-stars saw the actor’s full-bodied commitment to delivering on the Spider-Noir universe helped elevate what actor Lucas Shaw described as a new kind of “badass adult” version of Spider-Man and one where Sandman actor Jack Huston said the heroes and villains do “become a bit of their own metaphor and that’s a beautiful thing.”

“Nic is unlike any other actor you’ve ever seen. He pulled from Bugs Bunny to play this character,” said Lamorne Morris, who portrays Robbie Robertson, a journalist and friend of Cage’s Reilly. “His whole thing is he is a spider trying to learn how to be a human. Whereas I think other characters are the reverse — they are humans playing the spider and I think it’s a completely unique take on it.” Added Brendan Gleeson, who portrays the series lead antagonist, mobster Silvermane: “It was just a joy to be working with Nic because you toss it across and it comes back with twice a spin on it.”

Cage not only stars but also serves as a producer, supporting the series through its “True Hue” color journey, headed up by colorist Pankaj Bajpai. “It was important to me to get the series made, and I knew there was a lot of trepidation about it being shot in black and white,” the actor and executive producer

Nicolas Cage and 'Spider-Noir' Team on Bringing Bogart to Spider-Man