While Prime Video’s ***Spider-Noir ***pits Nicolas Cage’s Ben Reilly against multiple villains, there are a few far more tragic than they initially appear.
Set in a 1930s version of New York City, the series offers a noir-based twist to the iconic Marvel webslinger, with Cage’s version being known as The Spider and, after retiring the superhero persona due to a past tragedy, brings it back when his latest case gets him entangled in a web of conspiracies surrounding Irish mob boss Silvermane. One of the key elements of Ben’s case is his search for bodyguard Flint Marko, being hired by mysterious nightclub singer Cat Hardy to find him.
In honor of the show’s premiere, ScreenRant’s Grant Hermanns interviewed Li Jun Li and Jack Huston to discuss Spider-Noir. When asked about evolving their characters from their comic roots, with Cat being an update on Felicia Hardy/Black Cat and Marko not simply a career criminal, Li began by describing it as “the actor’s dream” to have helped create her version of Cat “without the pressures of Marvel fans expecting you to replicate this iconic character that everyone so desperately wants to see.”
The star went on to describe Hardy as being “completely Oren [Uziel’s] iteration,” getting to “create her from a blank canvas” and utilize “his inspirations” for the role in her performances. The creator and Li “*picked *little pieces from the classic femme fatales of classic noir films,” while also “taking pieces of Felicia Hardy’s history” from her Marvel comics tenure and “writing this brand-new biography for her”:
Li Jun Li: We put that together, and then, most importantly, is humanizing her, just like most of the characters in this entire series, and how most of them, if not all of them, are not real villains. Every single one of us are going through something very grounded and real, and something that we can all relate to, but they’re all being put in a situation where they have to make decisions that could potentially hurt someone.
Turning to Spider-Noir’s version of Marko, who proves to be something of a romantic and whose powers are actively working against him, Huston described his character as being “so beautifully written.” He went on to share that his Sandman is “steeped in tragedy,” as is that of Abraham Popoola’s Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone, pointing to their environment as being the reason for their turn to villainy:
Jack Huston: Coming out of the war and coming back to a city that we feel like has forgotten us, good people do bad things when they’re in desperate situations. I think that’s very much the situation all of us actually find ourselves in in this show. So, it was really beautiful, because I usually have to fall in love with my character in some form, in some way, and I found him very easy to relate to, to fall in love with. I think the struggles that he’s going through are very human, are very real, and it’s always nice when you’re, like Li Li was saying, given free range to explore this and not have to adhere to anything that’s come before. So, we all had a ball making this.
Ever since making his debut in the 1967 *Spider-Man *animated series, Sandman has had a variety of depictions throughout the years, albeit often from a more antagonistic point of view. One of the most notable rare exceptions was that of Thomas Haden Church’s iteration in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, in which Marko was a criminal desperate to make money for his terminally ill daughter, and was accidentally the one who killed Uncle Ben.
Lonnie Lincoln, on the other hand, is one who has almost exclusively been featured as a villain in previous *Spider-Man *titles, generally portrayed as an intelligent figure whose fixation on the Marvel webslinger stemmed from seeing him as an obstacle to his goals. The sole deviation was in Disney+‘s *Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man *series, in which Tombstone’s life of crime came from trying to keep his brother out of it, and becoming enticed by the power he’s gaining.
While its noir setting would seemingly have been perfect for keeping Marko and Lincoln in their atypical villain personas, given the genre formula typically pits private detectives against a variety of antagonists during their investigations. However, in making Marko and Popoola war veterans whose criminal lives come out of necessity more so than desire, it not only makes them more sympathetic figures to follow, but also lays better groundwork for them for potential future seasons.
Nicolas Cage is about to deliver a very different Spider-Man performance in the Spider-Noir series, but just how vast is the gap between Spider-Men?
As for Cat Hardy, her femme fatale role in ***Spider-Noir ***largely aligns with her depiction in both comics and previous *Spider-Man *adaptations. Much like Batman and Catwoman’s dynamic, the webslinger and Black Cat are well known for their complicated relationship and his sense of justice influencing her to become more of an anti-heroine, in which noir femme fatales are similarly featured. While her relationship with Flint makes her and Ben less likely to be a romantic pairing, their connection could still better help flesh out Cat and Marko in the tragic way that Li and Huston are teasing.
**Spider-Noir is available to stream in its entirety on Prime Video now.
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Oren Uziel, Steve Lightfoot
In Spider-Noir, an aging and down-on-his-luck private investigator in 1930s New York is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero. Spider-Noir, starring Nicolas Cage, is the first live-action series based on the Spider-Man corner of the Marvel Universe.