The Nicolas-Cage-led series Spider-Noir was axed by Amazon this week, despite being critically and popularly acclaimed.
Spider-Noir starred Cage as a middle-aged, alcohol-soaked private detective and not-so-friendly neighborhood Spider-Man named Ben Reilly in 1930s New York.
With a supporting cast including Lamorne Morris of Fargo and New Girl, Li Jun Li of Quantico, Karen Rodriguez of The Hunting Wives and Oscar-nominee Brendan Gleeson, Spider-Noir packed a punch.
Based on the Marvel comic “Spider-Man Noir,” the series was developed with the team behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Spider-Noir was lauded by critics and audiences, with a 92 percent fresh critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 90 percent score from audiences.
It was also nominated for 11 Emmys—the most for any Amazon Prime series in 2026.
The cancellation, Deadline speculated, was most likely due to the viewership numbers not measuring up to the high cost of producing the series, which was filmed in black and white, and color, allowing viewers to choose just how ‘noir’ they wanted to be.
The series earned 2.6 billion viewing minutes in its first six weeks, according to Nielsen’s streaming content ratings.
Spider-Noir was the first concept from a Sony-Amazon content deal to make it to the small screen. An earlier co-pro based on the Spider-Man character called Silk didn’t make it through production.
The film and TV rights to the Marvel character Spider-Man, and many others including Venom, have been owned by Sony since 1999, when the studio acquired it in a reported $7 million deal from a struggling recently-bankrupted Marvel.
The terms of the deal require Sony to produce new Spider-Man content regularly or lose the character, which helps explain the constant re-imagining of Spider-Man since the release of Sam Rami’s Toby Maguire-led Spider-Man in 2002.
Marvel and Sony agreed on a collaboration that allowed Marvel to bring the fan-favorite character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man debuted in Captain America: Civil War and has become the franchise’s best-performing stand-alone hero with 2026’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day outperforming every other Marvel movie except Avengers: Endgame at the box office.
Sony and Amazon’s superhero collaborations aren’t done and dusted. The studios are reportedly working on a number of other concepts and have one concept in development “said to be nearing a series order,” Deadline reported.
