One of the many highlights in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was Nicolas Cage voicing Spider-Man Noir, (pictured above) a version of Spidey whose lines—such as “Sometimes I let matches burn down to my fingertips just to feel something, anything,” and, “Can you close off your feelings so you don’t get crippled by the moral ambiguity of your violent actions?”—deftly convey the dark, deep thoughts of this black-and-white iteration of the character.
During SXSW, Cage talked to Collider in an attempt to promote his upcoming movie—the post-apocalyptic horror flick, Arcadian—and also answered a question about whether he might play Spider-Man Noir again, this time potentially in the live-action series in the works.
“Well, I can say that we have been talking. It’s no secret that I love the character,” he said. “I think the character provides another mash-up of sorts. I can combine my favorite golden age performances, i.e. Robinson, Cagney, Bogart, with a character that is, I guess, widely considered [to be] Stan Lee’s masterpiece. I see it as a kind of foray into a pop art mashup of, sort of, a [Jungian] Lichtenstein, mashup by way of Bogart and Cagney, but nothing’s definitive yet. It’s just conversation.”
I’m more than ready to see Cage bring his Jungian mashup of Bogart and Cagney to Spider-Man Noir. [ed note: though some of us would prefer our beloved Warhol to get a shout out over Roy Lichtenstein.] Here’s hoping we’ll see Cage take on the role at least one more time.
