The Bizarre Legal Reason Spider-Noir Can't Be Called Spider-Man (Or Peter Parker)

For the first time in a very, very long time, we have a "Spider-Man" live-action TV series. Well, sort of. Starring Nicolas Cage as a character inspired by the one he played in "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," Prime Video's new series "Spider-Noir" shows us what it would look like if a web-slinging hero existed as a hard-boiled detective in the 1930s. Cage's character is also named Ben Reilly, not Peter Parker. Nor is he called Spider-Man.

Why? What benefit is it to Marvel and/or Amazon to have a "Spider-Man" show without a character named Spider-Man in it? Part of it undoubtedly has to do with the fact that Sony owns the movie rights to "Spider-Man" and many of his other Marvel characters. In reality, it's bigger than that. In short, calling a character Spider-Man and/or Peter Parker comes with some pretty major restrictions.

In a 2015 piece by The Hollywood Reporter, it's explained that Marvel has very specific rules for its marquee superhero, who was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in the 1960s. The rules outlined in the piece reportedly stemmed from a contract that was signed in 2011. When a company like Marvel signs a contract licensing the rights to a character as big as Spider-Man, the language is typically pretty specific.

That has a lot to do with why Cage's character isn't called Spider-Man in "Spider-Noir." Rather, his hero moniker is The Spider, and the specific language in that contract makes it clear why the name was changed. 

When it comes to anyone bearing the name Spider-Man, the rules on Marvel's side of the fence are pretty darn specific. Had series developer Oren Uziel, or producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, decided to call Nicolas Cage's character Spider-Man, it would have been restrictive. Per the 2015 THR article:

"For Spider-Man, Marvel determined that he must be male and 'not a homosexual,' with the interesting addition that the latter would be invalidated if 'Marvel has portrayed that character as a homosexual.' Additionally, he does not torture, does not kill 'unless in defense of self or others,' doesn't smoke or abuse alcohol, sell or distribute drugs, or have sex before the age of 16 or with anyone below that age."

Ben Reilly in "Spider-Noir" is a drinker, and the show deals with lots of more adult themes. Calling him Spider-Man would have put a stop to much of that. 

It's also important to note that there is a distinction between Spider-Man and Peter Parker. Several other characters in the pages of Marvel Comics have taken the hero's name. Ben Reilly, aka the Scarlet Spider, is a character fans have come to appreciate. However, he started life as a much-hated clone of Peter Parker in the pages of the comics.

There's also Miles Morales, introduced as a half-Black, half-Hispanic Spider-Man in 2011. He has since become incredibly popular, even before his big screen debut in "Across the Spider-Verse." Even so, any version of Spider-Man must obey Marvel's rules. That can be a little restricting, particularly for creators who wish to tell any sort of out-of-the-box story involving the hero in other media. In this case, the creative team decided to navigate around those choppy waters.

When it comes to Peter Parker, the rules from Marvel get even more specific and more restrictive. The THR report noted that "His full name, race and sexual orientation are defined (Peter Benjamin Parker, Caucasian and straight, respectively)." That's just for starters.

The contract also outlines that "He 'gains his powers while attending either middle school or college" and "where he was raised, has to be Queens, New York." Right off the bat, Nicolas Cage is playing a much older version who, without spoiling things, gets his powers in an unconventional way. That wouldn't work within Marvel's rules. When the "Captain America: Civil War" screenwriters made room for "Spider-Man," they even included a line making it clear that Peter was from Queens.

At the end of the day, there were legal implications at play, but it seems like all involved were trying to make a creative decision here. While they are going to let fans decide whether to watch "Spider-Noir" in black-and-white or color, the creators had a take on the Spider-Man mythos they wanted to see through, and they figured out a way to make it happen within Marvel's bounds. The synopsis for the series reads as follows:

"Spider-Noir" tells the story of Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage), a seasoned, down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life, following a deeply personal tragedy, as the city's one and only superhero.

Lamorne Morris (Robbie Robertson), Li Jun Li (Cat Hardy), Karen Rodriguez (Janet Ruiz), Abraham Popoola (Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone), Jack Huston (Flint Marko/Sandman), and Brendan Gleeson (Silvermane) also star.

"Spider-Noir" Season 1 is streaming now on Prime Video.