When it came to finding the right tone for MGM+ and Prime Video’s Spider-Noir, executive producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller immediately signed on to star Nicolas Cage’s novel inspiration: 70% Humphrey Bogart and 30% Bugs Bunny.
“One of the things that you don’t think about with Noir is that you’re like, ‘It’s super serious,’” said Miller during Spider-Noir’s panel at Deadline Contenders TV event Saturday, “But Bogart always had a twinkle in his eye and he was always doing something clever, and he and Bugs Bunny have more in common than you might think.”
“Yeah, there’s like a playfulness to it, right?” agreed Lord. “And there’s a playfulness to Nic – I think that’s why he’s so iconic and there’s a playfulness to [showrunner] Oren [Uziel], who we worked with on the Jump Street movies. And so the idea is that the show is: it is a big character drama, it is an amazing mystery, it’s a big event television, but it’s also light on its feet.”
Spider-Noir is a live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir. It tells the story of Ben Reilly (Cage), a seasoned, down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life, following a deeply personal tragedy, as the city’s one and only superhero.
“The origin story was this was a character that we developed in the first Spider-Verse movie and we had an amazing time working with Nic Cage,” explained Miller. “And when the idea of us making a live-action Spider show came up, this was the first idea that we had, because it felt like it was a contained universe. It was its own thing.”
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Miller stressed that they “didn’t want to do something that’s part of some giant web of interconnected series. It’s just its own little jewel of a story. It’s a big jewel. By little, I mean an enormous jewel. It’s the Hope Diamond of television.” So, the two called up their friend, Oren Uziel, “the biggest noir aficianado we know and he took to the idea immediately – the idea of being able to do a Humphrey Bogart type character, a detective story, but the detective happens to also have spider powers.”
Miller explained Cage came right back to them saying, ‘Listen, is it okay if he’s old and washed up as a character?’ Because I really relate to that type of a person more than a plucky upstart teenager,” said Miller. “We’re like, ‘Absolutely!’”
“That’s the thing that I love about a noir is it’s about people in impossible situations, added Lord. “And the thing that Amy Pascal always taught us about Spider-Man is it’s not about flying around. It’s about what’s going on inside these guys and how challenged they are trying to live their lives as human beings and also live their lives as heroes at the same time.”
Added Miller: “One of the things that you don’t think about with noir is that you’re like,’It’s super serious.’ But Bogart always had a twinkle in his eye and he was always doing something clever and he and Bugs Bunny have more in common than you might think.”
Lamorne Morris also stars as Robbie Robertson, along with Li Jun Li as Cat Hardy and Karen Rodriguez as Janet.
Spider-Noir is produced by Sony Pictures Television exclusively for MGM+ and Prime Video. Emmy-winning director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Killing Eve) directed and executive produced the first two episodes. Oren Uziel (The Lost City, 22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (Marvel’s The Punisher, Shantaram) serve as co-showrunners and executive producers.
Check back Monday for the panel video.