‘Spider-Noir’ Team Talks Creating “The Level Of Care” Required To Pull Off A Gritty Superhero Series

Prime Video celebrated everyone’s favorite web slinger from an alternate timeline during a Deadline Studio at Prime Experience conversation about Spider-Noir, a talk that featured the series’ co-showrunner, writer and executive producer Oren Uziel and cast members Lamorne Morris, Jack Huston and Karen Rodriguez.

In his first leading TV role, Oscar winner Nicolas Cage plays aging and down-on-his-luck private investigator Ben Reilly in 1930s New York, forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero, The Spider.

Watch the conversation in the video below and scroll down for photos from the event.

Similar to Cage, who had made appearances in three other TV shows, Spider-Noir was Uziel’s first TV job, previously focusing on screenwriting for films like Mortal Kombat (2021), The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) and the upcoming Fast Forever.

“After [Cage] had done a version of this character in the Spider-Verse movies, I knew he was familiar with it, and he was just perfect for it. So he was the only call that was made. We then sat down together and started talking about all of our references, whether it was the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies or millions of film noirs, and he just got comfortable,” Uziel said.

He continued, “This is my first TV show, too. So we did it together. We just made a promise to each other that we’re gonna approach this as the most cinematic of TV shows, and really just approach it like a movie, and treat it with that level of care. We both got comfortable with it, and he was in pretty quick.”

A cheeky Huston revealed that Uziel and Cage lived together while making the series.

Emmy winner Morris opened up about how easy it was for him to take on the role of journalist Robbie Robertson, as prior to being an actor he was working on becoming a sports journalist. Things did not pan out the way he planned, due he says to the amount of research the job required. So he became an actor — then discovered the job also required copious amounts of research. The irony makes him laugh.

In the end, he came to realize that acting was what he wanted to do, in part to celebrate unsung heroes like Ted Poston, the first African American journalist to work full-time for a white-owned newspaper. Poston worked at the New Post with a focus on covering stories about and for the Black community and served as an inspiration for Morris’ character in Spider-Noir.

“What’s interesting about this character is that when I took a dive into Robbie, looking at some of the old comics, and watching and rewatching some of the Raimi films, I stumbled upon a guy named Ted Poston, a journalist back in those days who lived the life that Robbie is living,” Morris said. “So, I found myself doing research on him and kind of walking his walk, which I found to be interesting. I think more people need to know about him. Ted one of those guys that people don’t talk about enough.”

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Nicolas Cage

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Lamorne Morris and Karen Rodriguez

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Jack Huston and Oren Uziel

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Karen Rodriguez

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Rodriguez said she was elated to be selected to play Janet Ruiz, Reilly’s scene-stealing secretary and fellow investigator who kept him on his toes — sometimes literally. Still a relative newcomer in Hollywood, Rodriguez reveled working alongside Cage, calling him a great scene partner whom she enjoyed watching as he flexed his acting muscles.

“I’m gonna keep it real, I was so scared. Thankfully, I was playing a baddie who speaks her mind, who is not afraid to say the thing and keep him right,” she said of Janet and Reilly. “[Cage] was so present and so unexpected.”

She recalled, “I remember Danny, one of our crew members, who one day asked, ‘How does it feel to be robbing scenes from Nicolas Cage?’ And whether or not that was true, he gave me breath. It was such a step for me. It’s such a dream, and to learn from [Cage]… Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I was going to be opposite someone like that. I grew up [watching] this legendary Hollywood actor. He carries those lessons with him when you’re opposite him.”

Best known for his work in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and FX’s Fargo, as well as a slew of indie and major films, Huston’s casting in Spider-Noir might have appeared surprising. However, while watching the series, viewers will understand the choice instantly. Huston plays the mutant Flint Marko/aka Sandman with depth and emotion, showing a side not often focused on in superhero fare. For example, his character struggles with having powers and would do anything he can to be back to normal.

“I think it comes down to the writing, as always, in a great show, a great film, if that character speaks to you, which it truly did,” said Huston. “When I was doing the audition process for this, which is fun when you actually get to read something and read for something. There’s something quite nice about them saying, ‘You’re on the right track…’ “

“These characters are very human at moments; they’re very funny, they’re very tragic,” he said. “They are going through this internal struggle. Good people do bad things in desperate situations, and I’ve always found that to be true of a lot of characters I’ve played. I really wanted to find the heart of Flynn, and not make him a villain, and make him an anti-hero, somebody who’s being forced into a situation, but actually his heart’s good, he’s pure, he’s got something going for him, and I think he cares deeply. I love characters like that, where you know what you see on the surface isn’t who they are.”

For more Deadline Studio at Prime Experience content, click here.