Jack Huston To Play Major Marvel Villain In Nicolas Cage's Spider-Man Noir Series

The live-action Spider-Man Noir series was announced way back in 2023, and it's finally starting to take shape. A spin-off of the incredibly successful and beloved "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," the upcoming TV show is set to bring Nicolas Cage's black-and-white web-slinger from the 1930s to live-action (kind of).

An article by Esquire gives many details about the upcoming Prime Video show, including that it will be presented both in color and in black-and-white, with the latter option mimicking the look of classic noir cinema that inspired the show. Oren Uziel serves as showrunner, while Phil Lord and Chris Miller produce "Spider-Noir." Cage is playing a different alter-ego of the web-slinger than he did in animated form; this time, he's playing Ben Reilly, who is Peter Parker's clone in the comics. Reilly is a grizzled detective with a cynical heart and a love for punching Nazis. In another effort to distinguish the show from other web-slinging projects, "Spider-Noir" won't refer to its title character as Spider-Man. Instead, he's going to be called "The Spider," similar to pulp heroes of that era like The Phantom or The Shadow.

The show's story will focus on Ben Reilly investigating the latest assassination attempt on gangland boss Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson), with our cynical hero suspecting there's something strange afoot when an arsonist starts sparking fire from his hands. One of the classic Spider-Man villains who will appear (albeit probably in a reinterpreted fashion) is Flint Marko, aka the Sandman, to be played by Jack Huston. Huston is perhaps best known for his role as Richard Harrow in "Broadwalk Empire" and Lasher in "Mayfair Witches."

Flint Marko, of course, made his first live-action appearance in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3," where he was played by Thomas Haden Church.

According to Esquire, "Spider-Noir" will feature "several characters drawn from the Marvel Comics pantheon" reinterpreted as hard-boiled noir archetypes. Li Jun Li is set to play Cat Hardy, a femme fatale that seems to be inspired by Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat.

As for Flint Marko, we don't yet know how the classic "Spider-Man" villain will be reimagined beyond just being hired muscle. Still, we can at least expect a different take on the character than the last time we saw him on the screen.

In Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3," Thomas Haden Church plays Marko as a tragic figure. In that version, he's the man actually responsible for the death of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), an accident that's haunted him for years. He escapes from prison desperate to visit his sick daughter, but accidentally falls into an experimental particle accelerator that grants him sand-related powers.

Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" has an undeservedly bad reputation, but there's a lot to like about the movie. For one, years before Marvel started turning every villain into a tragic and sympathetic figure, Raimi gave us morally complex characters. Every villain in his trilogy turned into a supervillain by accident, and they are all good people deep down, doing bad things once they gain powers.

"Spider-Noir" may retain some of that, adding complexity to the villains. Or perhaps, just as Nicolas Cage describes his portrayal of The Spider as "70 percent Humphrey Bogart, and 30 percent Bugs Bunny," the villains may end up being 30% cartoon characters. There's nothing wrong with that, but it will be interesting to see how well the show can balance the tone of a hard-boiled noir story with the cartoonish fun of "Into the Spider-Verse" when it premieres this spring.