Development Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman
Tony Vinciquerra stated in March 2019 that Sony's
shared universe of
Spider-Man–related properties, known as
Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), would be expanding to television with a set of
Marvel Comics projects developed by
Sony Pictures Television. The studio was "essentially internally auditioning" characters from the 900 it could access to decide which medium they would appear in. After their work on Sony's animated film
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018),
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller signed their production company Lord Miller Productions to an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television in April 2019 to develop multiple television series for the studio, including their Marvel-based series, which could potentially include characters from
Into the Spider-Verse as well as live-action properties. Select projects would be produced in conjunction with
Amy Pascal, a frequent producer of the
Spider-Man films, with the intention for Lord and Miller to
reboot the Spider-Man property for television. By September 2020, Sony was in talks with
Prime Video for the latter to be the streaming distributor for Sony's "suite" of Marvel-based television series. Sony Pictures Television was revealed in February 2023 to be developing a television series based on the
Spider-Man Noir character for
MGM+ and Prime Video via
Amazon MGM Studios. This version of the character is from a different universe than the one seen in the
Spider-Verse animated films. Miller believed a series based on the character was "the biggest no-brainer of all time".
Oren Uziel, a close friend of Lord and Miller's who was a fan of
film noir, was writing for the series and developing it with fellow executive producers Lord, Miller, and Pascal through their production companies
Lord Miller Productions and
Pascal Pictures. Miller said Uziel had a "perfect" take on approaching the series. In December, Amazon hired
Steve Lightfoot, who was the
showrunner of the
Marvel Television series
The Punisher (2017–2019), to serve as co-showrunner and an executive producer alongside Uziel; the two are credited as the series' developers along with Lord, Miller, and Pascal. Amazon announced at its
upfronts presentation in May 2024 that the series had been ordered and titled
Noir, and that
Harry Bradbeer had joined as an executive producer and would direct the first two episodes.
Nzingha Stewart served as another director. Additional executive producers are Aditya Sood and Dan Shear of Lord Miller, star
Nicolas Cage, and Pavlina Hatoupis. In July, the series was retitled
Spider-Noir to better highlight its connections to the Spider-Man universe, and was revealed to consist of eight 45-minute long episodes. Lesley Goldberg at
Puck reported in August 2024 that Sony was not expected to renew its overall deal with Lord and Miller after the duo disagreed with the studio on the series' budget. By the end of 2024, Sony was reported to no longer be developing further films for its franchise at that time and was instead focusing on other projects, such as
Spider-Noir. In April 2026, Uziel was excited to potentially explore
World War II as a setting for a possible second season, adding that centering the series around a private detective, "all it takes is a knock on the office door and a new client walks in… Whether it's New York or a different setting, I really feel like this is a great jumping-off point to expand your story."
Writing Christopher Chen, Megan Liao,
Tori Sampson, Jennifer Frazin, Jack Henderson, and Bruce Marshall Romans served as writers on the series, alongside Uziel and Lightfoot; Romans previously worked with Lightfoot on
The Punisher. Miller said in May 2023 that development, along with the
writers' room, was put on hold because of the
2023 Writers Guild of America strike that began earlier that month, and that work would resume after the strike concluded; the writers' strike ended in late September 2023.
Spider-Noir is set in an
alternate world based on 1930s New York City, with Sony Pictures Television president Katherine Pope describing the series as a reimagining of the Spider-Man Noir character in the SSU. Upon the reveal of the series' development,
Variety reported that it would be set in its own universe and that the series would focus on a different main character rather than
Peter Parker, who is the identity of Spider-Man Noir in the comics. The main character is known as
Ben Reilly, the name of a separate character in the comics who is a clone of Peter Parker and becomes the
Scarlet Spider. The Reilly in
Spider-Noir is not known as "Spider-Noir", but rather "The Spider" as a way to harken back to some of the early crimefighters in comics such as the
Spirit and
the Shadow. Uziel said one of the reasons for changing the name of the character from Parker to Reilly was to better fit with the series' noir tone, saying that "Peter Parker feels very synonymous with a high school kid. Boyish." Lord and Miller also said there were additional narrative reasons for changing the name that would be addressed in the series, while Cage said
Spider-Noir would explain why Reilly "talks the way he talks" beyond "just mashing the flavors of 1930s film performance and Marvel iconography".
Casting 's first lead role in a television series. Lord and Miller said in May 2023 that there was potential for Nicolas Cage to portray Spider-Man Noir in the series after he previously voiced a version of the character in
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Cage was in talks for the role by February 2024, and was confirmed to star by May as Ben Reilly / The Spider. In July 2024, several actors were cast in the series, including
Lamorne Morris as
Robbie Robertson,
Brendan Gleeson as
Silvermane,
Li Jun Li as
Cat Hardy, and
Abraham Popoola. Gleeson's casting was confirmed in September, when
Jack Huston and Karen Rodriguez joined the cast as series regulars as
Flint Marko / Sandman and Janet, respectively. Also that month,
Lukas Haas,
Cameron Britton,
Cary Christopher,
Michael Kostroff,
Scott MacArthur, Joe Massingill, Whitney Rice, and
Amanda Schull were all cast in undisclosed recurring roles.
Andrew Lewis Caldwell was cast to recur in the series in November, followed by
Amy Aquino and
Andrew Robinson joining in February 2025, and the next month, Kai Caster had joined for a guest role, which was said to be connected to another character in the series.
Design Trayce Field served as the costume designer, after previously designing the
Prowler super suit worn by
Donald Glover for a live-action sequence in the animated film
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), while Warren Alan Young was the production designer, after working on the Marvel Television series
Runaways (2017–2019).
Filming Principal photography had begun by August 2024 in
Los Angeles, using the
working title Old Fashioned, with
Darran Tiernan serving as the cinematographer. Gleeson had begun filming some of his scenes by the start of October. Filming was temporarily suspended due to the
January 2025 Southern California wildfires, and it was initially scheduled to last until February 2025; filming had concluded by mid-March. The production used
black-and-white cameras and filters during filming to capture the authentic style of early 1930s
noir films, such as featuring long shadows.
Post-production Tirsa Hackshaw,
Eric Kissack, and Jennifer Barbot serve as the series' editors; Hacksaw previously worked with Lightfoot on
The Punisher. The series was created for release in both
black-and-white and color. To achieve the two versions, on-set footage was captured digitally to then be split and processed separately. The team coined the term "True-Hue" to refer to how they went about creating their
Technicolor-like color version, with Cage saying that version was made to look "super saturated" and Uziel noting it was as if the black and white film had been colorized. Cage likened the style of the color version to the painting
Nighthawks (1942) by
Edward Hopper.
Anthony Breznican at
Esquire felt each version resulted in different vibes for the series, "with the color version veering more toward the lighthearted comic-strip crime capers of
Dick Tracy, while the black and white conjures the sinister moral abyss of
the novels of Raymond Chandler".
Music Kris Bowers and Michael Dean Parsons were revealed in February 2026 to be composing the series' score. == Marketing ==