Abraham Popoola of Atlas and Andor has joined the cast of the Nicolas Cage Prime Video series Spider-Noir as a World War I veteran
Longlegs star Nicolas Cage voiced the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man Noir in the animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and now he’s set to play the character in live-action for an upcoming MGM+ and Prime Video series that’s going by the title Spider-Noir. Yesterday, we got our hands on a batch of character breakdowns that gave a preview of some of the characters we’ll be seeing on this show – and now Deadline has broken the news that Abraham Popoola has been added to the cast. Popoola’s previous credits include Atlas, Morbius, Andor, The Curse, and The Marvels. On Spider-Noir, Popoola will be playing “a World War I veteran who is looking for an opportunity to get ahead.” Unfortunately, none of the character breakdowns we saw mentioned anyone being a World War I veteran, so we still don’t know exactly who Popoola’s character is.
We do know that Spider-Noir will see Cage taking on the role of an aging and down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero. The show is expected to consist of eight 45 minute episodes. Cage has said, “One of the things that I like about this potential show is that it’s fantasy. It’s not really people beating people up. Monsters are involved.“
Cage’s character is Ben Reilly: A retired superhero with the powers of Spider-Man who is too old and broken, both figuratively and literally, to suit up the way he used to. Instead, he takes low-level PI cases and stays out of the ones that involve high-profile names, like that of the Mayor. Through flashbacks, we find out about his past heroics, and past failures, that led him to this point. He is charming, but weathered, and the pilot does an excellent job of setting him up for a good character arc moving forward.
Cage and Popoola are joined in the cast by Brendan Gleeson as the villain, Li Jun Li as a singer at a high-end nightclub, and Lamorne Morris as journalist Robbie Robertson.
Spider-Noir comes to us from Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (Marvel’s The Punisher), who will serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. Harry Bradbeer (Killing Eve) will direct and executive produce the first two episodes. Uziel and Lightfoot developed the series alongside Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal, the team behind the Spider-Verse movies. Lord, Miller, and Pascal will also serve as executive producers on Spider-Noir.
Are you looking forward to Spider-Noir? What do you think of Abraham Popoola joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.