The upcoming series Spider-Noir reimagines some of Marvel Comics’ most popular heroes and villains as Prohibition Era gumshoes and gangsters squaring off in a New York City that, until 1933, has only ever known one super-powered figure: the crime-fighting vigilante called The Spider. But no one has seen hide nor hair of The Spider for five years when the show begins.
The emergence of super-powered criminals prompts private eye Ben Reilly, The Spider’s alter ego played by Nicolas Cage, to suit up once more. While Ben’s sleuthing will reveal who these men are and how they got their powers, only The Spider can stop them from wreaking havoc on the Big Apple.
Co-showrunner and executive producer Oren Uziel and the creative team put the needs of the story first when selecting the rogue’s gallery of Spider-Noir. “There’s a million factors that go into this kind of thing. Some of them are practical like budget or availability because there’s a lot of different hands reaching into the cookie jar that Marvel has, but fortunately it’s also a really deep bench of characters,” Uziel told me.
“I went very story-first into what would suit the needs of the story that we’re telling. And then kind of relied on the fact that because Marvel is so expansive that there’s going to be a character that can fit in nicely with that, that will work for our story. In terms of villains, I really wanted them to be somewhat grounded and kind of connected to their humanity.”
Watch the video below for a first look at the villains of Spider-Noir:
That doesn’t mean the creators could use any Marvel character they wanted, as Uziel explained: “There are characters that you can’t use. I’m not sure that I was ever told specifically [who] you can’t use. There’s just a little bit of a common sense. It’s a shared playground. So we have a Spider-Man movie coming out a few months after the show. You don’t want to have too much overlap. You have things that have been in the most recent movies. You’ve got things from The Spider-Verse, from animation. A lot of these characters are appearing in a lot of things, and I think you just always want to stay as fresh as you can. And I think there’s no reason not to. I didn’t really feel constrained.”
Take a character like Electro. As Uziel says, “If you’re not going to use Electro, there’s another guy you can turn to.”
For Spider-Noir, that electrifying Spider-man villain ended up being Dirk Leydon, aka Megawatt, played by actor Andrew Lewis Caldwell. Uziel said Leydon “had dreams of making it big on Broadway,” so that’s why he occasionally peppers in quotes from famous plays while using his powers. “Dirk is the problem, it’s about getting his moment at all costs,” Caldwell said in our exclusive behind the scenes video seen above.
Of the show’s four super-powered rogues, the fire-wielding James “Jimmy” Addison (played by Jack Mikesell) is “the only one that doesn’t really have a direct comp [from the comics],” Uziel said. “There are plenty of Marvel characters that we could pull from that would satisfy that, but I wouldn’t want to, for lack of a better term, burn any for future use.”
The remaining two super-powered characters are far more recognizable for Marvel fans: Flint Marko, aka Sandman (played by Boardwalk Empire’s Jack Huston), and Lonnie Lincoln, aka Tombstone (played by Abraham Popoola).
Uziel said their version of Tombstone is “different from the comics in the way I think all of these characters are going to be familiar but different. We’re in a world now where you can take the best parts of these characters and the characterizations that have come through Marvel and make them your own. So working with an actor as talented as Abraham Popoola, I mean really the entire cast, but with Abe, he loves comic books, [is] deeply honored to be playing the part, and is a strong enough figure and voice to make him his own. And we work together on, again, finding the humanity in that Tombstone character who, in the comics too, is a bit of a tortured soul.”
In our exclusive video, Popoola calls his incarnation of Tombstone “way more interesting, there was something more nefarious happening. He links this classic comic book character with a very grounded story.”
Tombstone is albino in the comics. Uziel told me that while there was a “definite discussion” about making the character albino on the show, the fact that Spider-Noir will be in “Authentic Black & White” (as well as “True-Hue Color”) nixed that approach fairly early on: “Black and white is interesting. And certain things show up differently and present certain challenges. And I think [we] ruled that out before we even got too far down the road with talking about that.”
The entry point to the character of Sandman was Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, where Flint Marko was played by Thomas Haden Church as a not-so-bad bad guy. Uziel suggested that Spider-Noir’s Sandman is similarly sympathetic. “He’s really a bit of a tortured soul. And for me, those make kind of the best villains. I really liked his struggle, and his particular powers, I think, are always compelling and sort of fun to watch as a viewer too.”
Scroll through the gallery below for exclusive images of Sandman, Tombstone and more.
Spider-Noir Black-and-White and Color Images
Sandman actor Jack Huston wasn’t familiar with the character or Marvel Comics in general before he landed the role. “I was infinitely excited at the prospect of going into something like this, but not having to adhere to anything that’s come before,” the actor told me. “And because I didn’t know who Flint Marko was and the whole history of all that kind of stuff, I took it just at face value. I was like, ‘Well, why don’t I just go and create a great character from my head and come to this like I would any other story, as any other project, any other acting job? I just get to do a little bit more with it?’
“For all of the superhero comic book ideas, there’s also something very grounding about this show and actually very relatable. And I always think that’s important because with all the big and the funny parts and the drama and the melodrama and all that stuff, you do want it still to be based in something quite raw and quite real,” Huston said.
“It’s people who didn’t get a break, sometimes someone who caught a bad hand and is trying to do the best they can for what they’ve got. And a lot of people in this show [are] doing exactly that. They’re playing the only cards they can play.”
For Huston, Spider-Noir hits very close to home. He is the grandson of legendary director John Huston, whose 1941 film noir classic The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart as private eye Sam Spade, is an acknowledged influence on the show. “It was so cool that we were talking about my grandfather’s old films and Bogie. I grew up watching these kinds of things, and now I’m doing an extension of that. It was an amazing, amazing experience for me.”
In Spider-Noir, Lonnie Lincoln and Flint Marko know each other from serving in World War I (a subplot that I’ll keep vague here to avoid spoilers). “I know this is fictionalized and it’s Spider-Noir and what it is, but it’s still based on real experience. That’s what I think was so cool about this, is it is in New York City. These guys were the people who, in the trenches, were to the right and left of you. So they were your brothers in arms and you’d do anything [for them],” Huston said.
“I think it’s a really interesting way to explore these characters and their friendships and that idea of your brother and who they are and how far you’re willing to go for each other and what you would do for each other. I think it’s very important.”
“I know it sounds kind of corny, but no one is a villain.“
As important as Lonnie is to him, Flint’s romantic relationship with nightclub singer Cat Hardy (played by Sinners’ Li Jun Li) is arguably more vital to the overall plot of Spider-Noir, as it intertwines with both Ben Reilly and the city’s most powerful mob boss, Silvermane (played by Brendan Gleeson as an Irish version of an Italian character in the comics). Silvermane runs The Alcove, the club where Cat performs; Flint is her bodyguard and on Silvermane’s payroll.
Huston calls the relationship between Flint and Cat – who is the show’s riff on Marvel femme fatale Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat – “a very complex situation. I think they have a very deep bond, a special relationship. [It’s about] how far one’s willing to go for that and what you are willing to do. I think that sort of love triangle … exists within the show.”
As Huston added, “That’s usually why we do make choices, is from the heart. Sometimes they’re not the best choices, but at least there’s heart in it. That’s why I said I can never look at Flint as a bad guy. I’m like, he might do bad things, but I think his heart’s in the right place. And he has been led by his heart his entire life. That’s what he does. That’s what he fights with. I think he’s loyal to a fault. I think he cares incredibly deeply.”
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While Cat Hardy is certainly the show’s version of a Rita Hayworth-style femme fatale, Li Jun Li – who, like Huston, was not familiar with the comic book character before being cast – is reticent to label Cat a villain, even though she is, as Li explained, “the only person who’s pretty much dishonest to every single person [in the show].”
“When you’re lying, you kind of just want to stay still because you have to be careful about not revealing, showing your cards, but you also have to be hyper-focused so you can see and assess how much the other person knows,” Li said. “While she holds all the secrets, she also has to find out as much as she can. And through that, I found a lot of stillness in her.”
For as duplicitous as Cat is, Li believes there are genuine feelings between her and Flint: “Cat finds Flint very endearing because he is so pure. And I think that’s also his biggest flaw, is that he is so devoted to Silvermane, but he has never been wronged by Silvermane the same way that she was. I mean, [Silvermane] murdered the person that she once loved. And for whatever reason, it doesn’t get through Flint’s head that this could be them as well.
“I know it sounds kind of corny, but no one is a villain,” Li added. “Everyone has their motives. Everyone is there, including Cat, to get what [they want]. And she will do everything in her power to be as convincing as possible.”
Fans will see just how far Cat Hardy, Flint Marko, Lonnie Lincoln and Silvermane are willing to go to get what they want when Spider-Noir debuts domestically on MGM+’s linear channel on May 25 and then globally on Prime Video on May 27 as a binge release.