Nicolas Cage Finds His Spider-Noir Replacement In New HBO Series

Published Oct 18, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

When it was first announced, an entire TV series built around Nicolas Cage’s 1930s P.I.-style Spider-Man from the Spider-Verse movies seemed like a dubious prospect. That character provided some great comic relief in those films, but he might be stretched thin in a full season of a TV show.

Well, Spider-Noir turned out to be one of the best superhero shows to come along in a while, and just one of the most exciting, original, unique TV shows of 2026. It was more visually interesting than Wonder Man, it had a more satisfying ending than Lanterns, and it used its eight-episode run to give Cage the space to deliver one of the greatest performances of his career.

So, it was a crying shame when Amazon announced that it would cancel Spider-Noir after just one season. The first season told a complete story, with a satisfactory conclusion, so it’s not like we’ve been left on an unresolved cliffhanger or a shocking twist ending, but it would’ve been great to see this character again, especially now that he’s got his groove back and re-embraced his vigilante career as The Spider.

Spider-Noir dropped its first season in May, and it was canceled in September. Shows like Spider-Noir, with a lot of action and spectacle, are very expensive to produce — and this one required extensive additional photography to suit two different color formats — so they need massive viewing figures to justify their existence. Sadly, Spider-Noir didn’t reach that threshold, and Sony’s best Spider-project in years is now as dead as Uncle Ben.

But it won’t be too long before we see Cage back in sleuthing mode, tackling a complicated case. Spider-Noir may not be coming back for season 2, but Cage is staying in the detective drama space. He’s officially signed on to star in True Detective season 5 at HBO.

Nicolas Cage Is A Perfect Fit For True Detective

Via MovieStillsDB

A fifth season of True Detective went into development at HBO shortly after the success of the fourth season, subtitled Night Country. Night Country didn’t go over with all True Detective devotees — the Lynchian supernatural elements rubbed some diehard fans the wrong way, because a gritty groundedness is supposed to be in this show’s DNA — but it did earn the anthology franchise its best reviews since season 1.

After season 3, creator Nic Pizzolatto stepped down and HBO handed True Detective over to a new showrunner: Issa López. Having been pleased with her work on Night Country, HBO rehired López to showrun the fifth season, with a prospective release date of 2027. Despite some delays, the rumor mill kept turning. In summer 2025, we heard reports that Nicolas Cage was in negotiations to star in True Detective season 5.

Now, more than a year later, it’s finally been confirmed. Cage has signed on to play one of the lead roles in True Detective’s next season, Henry Logan, opposite Antonio Banderas as Rai García. This season will take place in Jamaica Bay, and it’ll begin filming in 2027. So, after playing a detective in Spider-Noir, Cage will now (presumably) play another detective in True Detective season 5.

Cage is a perfect fit for True Detective. If there was ever a chance that a True Detective detective would give a performance on par with Matthew McConaughey’s iconic portrayal of Rust Cohle, it’s this. No other actor works like Cage, and no other actor could if they tried. He’s a very distinctive personality, with lots of different shades of eccentricity. From his Oscar-winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas to his haunting villain turn as the Longlegs killer, Cage always does fascinating work. Even in Spider-Noir, Cage found plenty of depth in Ben Reilly’s jadedness, and turned a webslinging private eye into a living, breathing human being.

Spider-Noir