Nicolas Cage’s Live-Action Spider-Man Breaks A 47 Year Old Spider-Man Casting Tradition

Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man casting in Sony’s Noir breaks a record that none of Marvel‘s previous Spidey actors have gotten even close to attaining. Sony has officially announced the live-action Spider-Man show Noir, set to release on Prime Video and MGM+ with Nicolas Cage in the lead role. Cage voices an animated version of Spider-Man Noir in Sony’s multiversal Spider-Verse movies, but this iteration of the character will be separate from the live-action series. Spider-Verse writers and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, however, will executive produce Noir.

In the source material, Spider-Man Noir is the Peter Parker from Earth-90214, where superheroes begin to appear in the 1920s. Like the main Marvel universe’s Peter Parker, Spider-Man Noir faces villains such as the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Mysterio, and he crosses paths with other heroes and anti-heroes such as Black Cat, the Punisher, and Daredevil. Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir will not be Peter Parker, but a different character who takes the Spider-Man mantle in his own universe, which will likely be separate from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe movies and their established continuity.

Nicolas Cage Is The Oldest Spider-Man In 47 Years Of Movies & TV Shows

Nicolas Cage Is More Than Twice As Old As The Current Spider-Man Actor

Nicolas Cage has been cast as Spider-Man Noir at 60 years old — 32 years older than the oldest live-action Spider-Man actor at the time of his respective casting, Andrew Garfield, who was 28 when he announced his starring role in The Amazing Spider-Man at San Diego Comic Con 2011. Cage is 12 years older than Tobey Maguire and 20 years older than Andrew Garfield, both of whom returned in Spider-Man: No Way Home, 14 and 7 years after their previous appearance, respectively. Nicolas Cage is 33 years older than Tom Holland, who will likely be playing the MCU’s Spider-Man simultaneously.

Cage’s Older Spider-Man Can Open Up Brand New Stories

Spider-Man Can Follow In Wolverine, Iron Man, And Batman’s Footsteps

Throughout the decades, Peter Parker has become synonymous with his school and college years. Various comic book runs have challenged that notion, with varying degrees of success. Meanwhile, Spider-Man’s older years have only begun to be explored on the big screen in Spider-Man: No Way Home, where Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parkers briefly discussed the physical toll of their superhero duties. Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir could be the first live-action iteration of the character to delve deep into what it means to be an older wall-crawler.

Other superheroes have recently starred in movies and shows that deal with this kind of theme. For instance, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine faced the end of his centuries-long journey as his powers faded in Logan, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man retired for five years in Avengers: Endgame, Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton struggled with side effects of his job in Hawkeye, and Ben Affleck’s Batman had to adapt to massive changes in the world at the end of his career in the DCEU. Considering how famous Spider-Man is, it was only a matter of time until a live-action Spider-Man movie or show followed a veteran version of the hero.

The possible storylines for Noir are endless, especially given the show’s potential 1930s setting. Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir might face very different challenges than the rest of live-action Spider-Men, from seeing his abilities deteriorate to having to adjust to a new generation of villains and heroes and living up to his fame in a vintage New York City, not to mention the higher amount of street-level crime that his comic-book counterpart usually confronts in comparison to the modern-day Spider-People. Besides, a different Spider-Man who isn’t necessarily tied to Peter Parker will provide Noir with plenty of creative freedom.