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All right people, let’s start at the beginning. Spider-Man is a story about a kid name Peter Parker, who gets bit by a radioactive spider, gets great power and great responsibility, and the ability to crawl on walls. But, as we saw in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse showed us, the way that story gets told can change from universe to universe.
In fact, one of those Spider-People from Into the Spider-Verse is getting their particular story told in full, and it has some key differences from what we’ve seen before. The first trailer for Spider-Noir reintroduces us to Ben Reilly, the Spider-Man Noir, played this time in live action by Nicolas Cage. Among the many moody, hard-boiled images the trailer depicts, we also get a look at how Ben Reilly gained the ability to whatever a spider can, and its unlike any other Spider-Man we’ve seen before.
In the trailer, Cat Hardy—this reality’s version of the cat burglar the Black Cat, now a lounge singer played by Li Jun Li—asks Ben to go back to the beginning, but we’re not given anything specific about his origins. Instead, while Ben talks about the tics and impulses that he’s constantly battling, we see glimpses of what may have led to Spidey’s powers. In particular, we see a shot of Ben, in a military uniform that sure looks more German than American, staring at a spider in a jar. Later, we get a POV shot of what is likely to be Ben staring up at menacing-looking doctors about to perform on him. And then there’s Ben’s general attitude about his life, described thoughts delivered in Cage’s wonderfully idiosyncratic manner, which makes it clear that he did not ask to become a wall-crawler.
So is Spider-Man Noir the result of Nazi experiments?
Believe it or not, that origin wouldn’t be as far from the standard comics as you might think. The original story by Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby back in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15 simply established that Peter was bitten by a radioactive spider. Over time, various writers have expounded on that origin to explain why the spider was radioactive. Sometimes, it was accidentally exposed to chemicals or lasers, sometimes it was the result of some cosmic Madame Web nonsense, and sometimes it was the result of mad scientists such as Otto Octavius or Norman Osborn.
If Spider-Noir does go the Nazi experiment route, it will be deviating from one important Marvel comic: Spider-Man Noir, the 2009 miniseries by David Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky, Carmine Di Giandomenico, and Marko Djurdjević. In that series and its sequel, Peter Parker gained his powers when bitten by a spider from an exotic idol, an experience that gave him visions of a spider-god. However, this Spider-Man did go on to fight Nazis, who do eventually come looking for the idol, so maybe the show isn’t taking the liberties that one might expect.
Whatever Spider-Noir plans to pull from the comics, it’s also very much drawing from classic film noir and from Cage’s unique performance style. The result may be a Spider-Man different from any other, but as Into the Spider-Verse taught us, there have always been different Spideys, even way back at the beginning.
Spider-Noir streams on MGM+ on May 27, 2026.
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