With great reviews (a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and two different color-scheme variants to encourage rewatchability, Spider-Noir ought to have been a hit. It’s sort of a spin-off of the popular Into the Spider-Verse — technically this isn’t the same version of Spider-Noir as in the animated film, but it is still Nicolas Cage as a version of him. And it’s easily the best live-action Spider-thing Sony has done since they tried to start their own non-MCU Spider-Verse, mostly featuring villains forced into anti-hero roles.
And yet Spider-Noir was canceled after one season. Cage was pretty Zen about the show’s end, in a very Cage-like way. Fans have been less sanguine, though Spider-Noir‘s five Emmy victories feel like vindication. At least we’re likely to see the alternate version of him again in the next Spider-Verse animated movie. But what might we have seen, had the live-action series continued for at least one further season? Spider-Noir‘s creator is giving us a glimpse of what might have been and it would have gone into very intersting territory.
Spider-Noir Was Headed Towards World War 2
Variety caught up with showrunner Oren Uziel after the Emmy wins, to get his reaction, and find out what might have been. Uziel noted that at least there weren’t too many threads hanging with Season 1 being a complete story. “We made a very closed-ended show. There’s a reason we were honoring these old noirs,” he said. “The story begins when the client comes into the private detective’s office, and it ends when they solve the case. So, it was nicely buttoned up. We told a story. It felt a little bit like a long movie.”
As for what might have been in a potential Season 2, Uziel said a change of scenery was in order. Maybe Cage’s Ben would have gone to Los Angeles next, or even Europe, the later being especially possible given the show’s setting in terms of time.
“You’re starting in 1933. Where is that heading? It’s heading toward just a most cataclysmic time — World War II,” Uziel said. “There was a lot of storytelling that could have happened there.”
Spider-Noir versus Nazis? Who wouldn’t want to see the worst bad guys sustain web-filled punches? Rights issues probably wouldn’t allow a Noir-styled Red Skull, but a Green Goblin on the side of the Axis could certainly offer possibilities. However the series would have approached that particular time in history, there would have been no shortage of villains for Spider-Noir to take on. But while taking on that story would have been interesting, Uziel’s biggest regret about not continuing the show is actually much more simple.
“My biggest regret about not having another season is that I don’t get to do it again with these people,” he said. “Like I don’t have the show or the movie lined up to get everybody back together.”
He also hasn’t entirely ruled out hope that he could work with the same team again, though when asked if Emmy success could see a change of heart when it comes to continuing Spider-Noir, he had a very realistic response.
“I literally do not know the legalities and complications of that.” he said.” But I expect that it’s a complicated proposition.”