Nicolas Cage Breaks His Silence on ‘Spider-Noir’ Getting Canceled

Not every cancellation announcement gets a response straight from the actor at the center of it, but ‘Spider-Noir’ star Nicolas Cage isn’t one to stay quiet for long. The series had already made headlines for its bold visual style and genre-bending tone since debuting earlier this year, and its abrupt ending only added another chapter to that story.

Prime Video and MGM+ confirmed on September 4 that the show wouldn’t be moving forward with a second season, closing the book on Cage’s first regular episodic television role. The decision came as a surprise to many, especially given how the series had performed critically since its release.

Now Cage himself has weighed in, and he sounds genuinely at peace with how things ended. In a statement given exclusively to Deadline, Cage said one season felt perfect, since he’d already said what he wanted to say with the dangerous, innovative, pop-art take on Spider-Man, adding that he’s ready to move onwards, upwards, and inwards.

That reaction lines up with comments Cage made earlier this year around the show’s May premiere, when he described wanting to try something new for both himself and the audience, comparing the visual approach to a Roy Lichtenstein painting. It’s a tone that suggests Cage viewed ‘Spider-Noir’ as a complete artistic statement rather than the start of an ongoing franchise commitment.

‘Spider-Noir’ cast Cage as Ben Reilly, a down-on-his-luck private investigator working 1930s New York who’s forced to reckon with his past life as the city’s only masked hero. The character first appeared in the Oscar-winning animated film ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,’ though this live-action series told an entirely separate story rather than continuing that film’s narrative.

The show’s ensemble cast included Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston, and Brendan Gleeson, rounding out a noir-tinged world that critics generally responded to with enthusiasm. That critical reception makes the cancellation sting even more, given the series racked up 11 Emmy Award nominations and scored a 92 percent critics rating alongside a 90 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Despite the show’s end, Cage isn’t stepping away from Prime Video entirely. He’s set to star in the upcoming biopic ‘Madden,’ playing legendary NFL coach and broadcaster John Madden, which is expected to arrive later this year. That project should keep Cage firmly in the streamer’s good graces even as ‘Spider-Noir’ wraps up for good.

There’s also long-simmering chatter about Cage potentially heading to prestige television elsewhere. A report from last summer connected him to the lead role in season 5 of HBO’s ‘True Detective,’ though there’s been no update on where that possibility stands since it first surfaced.

For now, ‘Spider-Noir’ fans are left with a single season that ended on its own terms rather than a cliffhanger, something Cage’s comments suggest he considers a feature rather than a flaw. Whether or not the character returns down the line in some other form, Cage’s statement makes clear he’s not holding onto any resentment about how the story wrapped.

The cancellation news arrives during an unusually busy stretch for Cage, who’s currently balancing the fallout from ‘Spider-Noir’ alongside preparations for ‘Madden’ and whatever comes next in his notoriously unpredictable career. Few actors seem as comfortable moving from one wildly different project to another, and this latest chapter looks to be no exception.

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