Normally, I don’t like to lend a lot of credence to the internet’s scoopers. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re not. But without sourcing, backing info, etc. it enters a morally and ethically iffy area to write about these things. So why am I writing up the rumor that Nicolas Cage may play Ben Reilly, not Peter Parker, in Amazon‘s Spider-Noir? Because frankly, it makes a lot of sense.
The upcoming series is ostensibly spinning off of (pun very much intended) Cage’s appearance as Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. There he plays a multiversal version of Peter Parker from a black and white 1930s dimension… Straight out of a pulp detective novel. Given this show was developed with Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal, who also are key architects on the Spider-Verse movies, it would follow that this would be one-to-one, animated to live action.
…Except, as I noted when reporting that Brendan Gleeson and Lamorne Morris have been cast on the show (the latter as journalist Robbie Robertson, the former as a mystery villain), none of the casting announcements have said Cage is playing Peter Parker. That seems like a specific omission… One that I had already noted probably points to a multiversal version of Spider-Man — not Peter.
And that’s exactly what “scooper” Daniel Richtman notes on his Patreon: Cage is playing Ben Reilly, not Peter Parker.
While I will again caution you all that this is an unsourced rumor, there’s a fair amount of circumstantial evidence to point to it being accurate. First, Reilly, the clone of Spider-Man, has already appeared in the Spider-Verse series. He was voiced by Andy Samberg in Across The Spider-Verse, so there’s precedent. Second, there’s clearly some stipulation about how Sony can use Peter Parker that the general public doesn’t know about. Look no further than Madame Web, which did literal backflips to avoid saying Peter Parker’s name, for example.
Again a note of caution that unless you are a lawyer for Sony or Marvel, you do not know what the contracts in terms of usage for Spider-Man and Peter Parker state… There’s a lot of speculation online masked as knowledge, that’s mostly playground-style scuttlebutt. That said, whatever the reason Sony is avoiding saying Peter Parker — it may be as simple as not diluting the impact of the theatrical movies — having Cage be Ben Reilly in Spider-Noir certainly tracks for me.
And potentially, we should know soon enough whether Cage is Reilly or Parker. According to Production Weekly, Spider-Noir could start shooting as soon as September in Los Angeles. The show doesn’t currently have a premiere date — most likely 2025 at the earliest — and will premiere on MGM+ before heading to Amazon’s Prime Video.
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