Spider-Noir Canceled After One Season Despite 11 Emmy Nominations and a 92% Rotten Tomatoes Score
It had Nicolas Cage playing a Depression-era Spider-Man.
It let viewers choose between black-and-white and full color.
Critics embraced its strange collision of hard-boiled detective fiction and superhero mythology.
It earned 11 Emmy nominations—the most of any Prime Video program in 2026.
And its first season currently sits at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
None of that was enough to secure Season 2.
Prime Video has canceled Spider-Noir after a single eight-episode season, bringing Nicolas Cage's first regular television starring role to an unexpectedly early end. Entertainment Weekly, Variety, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter all confirmed the decision on September 4, 2026.
The cancellation is striking because it arrived just as the series was entering Emmy weekend with more nominations than any other Prime Video title this year. Amazon's own awards announcement shows Spider-Noir leading its slate with 11 nominations, ahead of Fallout with 10.
Its reviews were also unusually strong for a project emerging from Sony's often uneven Spider-Man-adjacent universe.
Rotten Tomatoes currently gives Season 1 a 92% Tomatometer score from 112 critic reviews, alongside a 90% audience score from more than 1,000 ratings.
So what happened?
At the moment, Amazon has not publicly announced a specific reason for canceling the series.
And that makes Spider-Noir an unusually interesting example of how modern streaming television actually works.
A show can be critically acclaimed.
It can receive major awards recognition.
It can generate respectable viewing numbers.
It can develop a passionate audience.
And it can still disappear after eight episodes.
Yes, Spider-Noir Is Officially Canceled
The cancellation is not speculation.
Entertainment Weekly reported that Spider-Noir “won't return for a second season,” confirming that its eight-episode first season will also be its last.
The series remains available on Prime Video.
There is simply no Season 2 planned.
That distinction matters because streaming shows occasionally disappear quietly without an explicit cancellation announcement.
That is not what happened here.
Prime Video made the decision not to proceed.
The Timing Makes the Cancellation Especially Strange
Spider-Noir premiered on Prime Video on May 27, 2026.
Just over three months later, the series was finished.
That alone is a short turnaround.
But the timing becomes even stranger when awards season is considered.
The 78th Emmy Awards are scheduled for September 14.
Spider-Noir entered the awards cycle with 11 nominations.
The cancellation therefore came before the show's Emmy story had even finished.
Amazon effectively canceled its most Emmy-nominated Prime Video program of the year while it was still waiting to find out how many of those nominations it might convert into wins.
That is not something audiences traditionally associate with successful television.
Streaming has changed those assumptions.
Imrul
The 11 Emmy Nominations Are Real
This part of the viral claim checks out completely.
Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video received 68 Emmy nominations across 16 titles in 2026.
Spider-Noir led the company's Prime Video slate with 11.
Its nominations include:
- Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program
- Outstanding Cinematography for a Series
- Outstanding Title Design
- Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup
- Outstanding Music Composition for a Series
- Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics
- Outstanding Sound Editing
- Outstanding Sound Mixing
- Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode
- Outstanding Stunt Coordination
- Outstanding Stunt Performance
Look closely at that list and another part of the story becomes visible.
These are overwhelmingly craft and technical nominations.
Nicolas Cage Was Not Nominated for an Emmy
Despite the attention surrounding his performance, Nicolas Cage himself did not receive an acting nomination.
The Television Academy's official database currently lists no Emmy nomination for Cage.
That does not diminish the show's 11 nominations.
But it changes how those nominations should be interpreted.
The Television Academy strongly recognized the world Spider-Noir constructed:
Its cinematography.
Production design.
Sound.
Visual effects.
Music.
Makeup.
Stunts.
Titles.
That aligns perfectly with what made the series distinctive.
Its greatest critical strength was arguably not conventional superhero storytelling.
It was atmosphere.
Spider-Noir Looked Unlike Almost Anything Else in Superhero Television
The concept was inherently strange.
Take Spider-Man.
Move him into a stylized 1930s New York.
Transform the superhero story into hard-boiled detective fiction.
Give the protagonist a fedora and trench coat.
Then cast Nicolas Cage.
The visual language drew heavily from classic film noir:
Deep shadows.
Rain.
Smoke.
Period architecture.
High-contrast lighting.
Crime fiction.
Private investigators.
Gangsters.
And cynical voice-over sensibilities.
The result could be viewed in either black-and-white or full color—an unusually ambitious presentation choice for a mainstream streaming series. Amazon explicitly marketed both versions.
That dual-format release was not merely a gimmick.
The black-and-white presentation made the show's noir influences impossible to miss.
Nicolas Cage Played Ben Reilly, Not the Familiar Peter Parker
The series follows Ben Reilly, played by Cage, as a weary private investigator operating in New York during the Great Depression.
Amazon's official synopsis describes him as a seasoned, down-on-his-luck detective forced to confront his former life as the city's only superhero following a deeply personal tragedy.
That immediately separated the series from the familiar Spider-Man formula.
No teenage Peter Parker.
No high school.
No bright Queens coming-of-age adventure.
This Spider-Man was older.
Tired.
Cynical.
Damaged.
And Nicolas Cage was an unusually logical actor for that interpretation.
Nicolas Cage Had Already Played Spider-Man Noir Before
Cage's relationship with the character did not begin with the live-action series.
He previously voiced Spider-Man Noir in the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The performance became a fan favorite largely because Cage understood the joke.
His version treated absurd noir dialogue with complete sincerity.
When Amazon and Sony moved toward live action, casting Cage again gave the project continuity while allowing him to reinvent the character physically.
Reuters described Spider-Noir as Cage's first leading television role and noted his previous animated connection with the character.
For an actor whose career has included more than four decades of film work, that alone made the project notable.
It Was Nicolas Cage’s First Regular TV Role
Cage had appeared on television before.
But Spider-Noir represented something fundamentally different:
A full serialized starring commitment.
At 62, an actor famous for Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off, Adaptation, National Treasure, Con Air, The Rock and countless stranger projects finally led a major streaming television series.
And then it lasted eight episodes.
That fact will probably make Spider-Noir even more unusual in retrospect.
Unless Cage takes another comparable television role later, the show could remain a fascinating anomaly in his filmography.
Critics Mostly Loved the Experiment
The current Rotten Tomatoes score tells the broad story:
92% from 112 reviews.
Rotten Tomatoes summarizes the critical reaction as praising Cage's pulpy performance and the show's stylish combination of superhero action with hard-boiled storytelling.
NPR critic David Bianculli went even further, calling it the best superhero television series since The Penguin.
That does not mean reviews were universally ecstatic.
The Hollywood Reporter criticized the storytelling as uneven, arguing that Cage's eccentric performance sometimes elevated material that otherwise felt conventional.
Other negative reviews similarly argued that the production's visual style was stronger than its narrative depth.
But Rotten Tomatoes shows that positive reviews comfortably dominated.
Even the Audience Score Was Strong
Critics were not alone.
The show's Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter currently sits at 90% from more than 1,000 audience ratings.
That makes the cancellation difficult to dismiss as a simple case of:
“Critics liked it but viewers hated it.”
They apparently did not.
Nor can the cancellation easily be explained by a disastrous launch.
Spider-Noir Had a Strong Nielsen Debut
Nielsen's U.S. streaming measurements show that Spider-Noir generated 851 million viewing minutes during the week of May 25–31.
That placed it:
No. 2 among original streaming series
and
No. 4 among all streaming programs measured that week.
It trailed Netflix's The Boroughs among original series but finished ahead of several major streaming titles.
The following week, June 1–7, it remained in Nielsen's rankings with 739 million minutes, placing fourth among streaming originals.
Those are not the numbers of a show that nobody watched.
Then Why Cancel It?
This is the question everyone naturally wants answered.
At present, there is no publicly confirmed single explanation.
Prime Video has not said:
“The audience was too small.”
It has not publicly blamed the budget.
It has not said Nicolas Cage was unavailable.
It has not cited production problems.
It has not announced that the story was always intended as a limited series.
So any confident explanation would currently be speculation.
That includes some sensational reports about its supposed budget or reshoots.
At least one widely circulated report alleging a $400 million budget and a year of reshoots was subsequently updated to say those claims had not been confirmed and that the reshoot information was incorrect.
That is a useful warning.
We know the cancellation happened.
We do not yet know exactly why.
Streaming Success Is More Complicated Than a Rotten Tomatoes Score
This is perhaps the larger lesson.
Streaming platforms do not primarily renew television shows because critics like them.
Nor are Emmy nominations sufficient.
Renewal decisions can incorporate:
- Total audience
- Completion rate
- Subscriber acquisition
- Subscriber retention
- Production cost
- Marketing cost
- International performance
- Audience demographics
- Licensing arrangements
- Future cast availability
- Strategic value to the platform
- Expected growth from another season
Most of those numbers are not public.
Nielsen gives outsiders one useful window.
Rotten Tomatoes provides another.
Awards provide another.
None shows the entire equation Amazon sees internally.
851 Million Minutes Sounds Huge—But Context Matters
A number such as 851 million sounds unquestionably successful.
But streaming measurements are difficult to interpret in isolation.
All eight Spider-Noir episodes were available during its measured premiere period.
A binge release naturally provides more available minutes than a series releasing one episode per week.
Nielsen also measures U.S. viewing on television sets rather than every device worldwide.
And total viewing minutes do not tell Amazon how many people:
Started the show.
Finished it.
Canceled afterward.
Subscribed specifically for it.
Would return for Season 2.
Those are different questions.
The public knows that Spider-Noir had a respectable launch.
We do not know whether Amazon believed another season would produce sufficient return.
Awards Success Does Not Necessarily Mean Commercial Success
Television history contains numerous acclaimed shows canceled early.
The reason is simple.
Awards measure artistic or technical recognition.
Streaming companies measure economic value.
Those categories overlap.
They are not identical.
Spider-Noir may be one of the clearest recent examples.
The same characteristics that generated its Emmy recognition—elaborate period sets, unusual cinematography, visual effects, prosthetics and extensive stunt work—also suggest a production that was not simple to make.
That does not prove cost caused the cancellation.
It simply highlights why an acclaimed show's economics can differ from those of a conventional drama.
The Emmy Categories Tell Us What Spider-Noir Did Best
Consider where those 11 nominations landed.
Production design.
Cinematography.
Titles.
Makeup.
Score.
Original song.
Sound.
Visual effects.
Stunts.
Those categories describe an unusually constructed world.
Spider-Noir did not receive 11 nominations because the Television Academy considered it one of the year's conventional prestige dramas.
It received them because the series created a technically ambitious fusion of comic-book spectacle and period noir.
That distinction makes the cancellation more bittersweet.
The very craftsmanship being celebrated may never get another season to evolve.
Nicolas Cage’s Performance Still Became the Show’s Identity
Even without an acting Emmy nomination, almost every discussion of Spider-Noir begins with Cage.
That is unsurprising.
Few actors could make this premise feel natural.
A superhero detective.
1930s dialogue.
Spider powers.
A fedora.
Film-noir seriousness.
Comic-book absurdity.
Most actors would need to choose between parody and sincerity.
Cage's unusual gift is that he can somehow play both simultaneously.
The series understood that.
Critics who liked the show frequently singled out exactly that quality.
The Supporting Cast Was Strong Too
Cage was joined by:
- Lamorne Morris
- Li Jun Li
- Karen Rodriguez
- Abraham Popoola
- Jack Huston
- Brendan Gleeson
Reviews frequently praised Morris and Li Jun Li in particular, while some critics highlighted Karen Rodriguez and other supporting performers as scene-stealers.
Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot served as co-showrunners.
The production also involved major Spider-Verse figures including Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal as executive producers.
This was not a minor experiment assembled quietly.
It was a significant Sony-Amazon Marvel project.
Spider-Noir Was Supposed to Help Launch a Larger Television Strategy
The series was the first show to emerge from a deal between Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios involving television projects based on Spider-Man-related characters.
Entertainment Weekly reports that another series from that partnership remains in development and is expected to be announced.
That means Spider-Noir's cancellation does not necessarily mean Amazon is abandoning Sony's Spider-Man universe entirely.
Quite the opposite.
Another project is apparently still moving forward.
But it does suggest that Amazon is willing to change direction quickly.
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Has Had a Complicated History
The larger context makes the cancellation particularly interesting.
Sony has spent years trying to expand Spider-Man intellectual property beyond Peter Parker himself.
Some experiments worked commercially.
Others became notorious.
The theatrical universe produced:
Venom.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Morbius.
Madame Web.
Kraven the Hunter.
The results varied enormously in both critical reception and commercial performance.
Spider-Noir represented a different strategy.
Instead of trying to turn another supporting Spider-Man character into a conventional superhero blockbuster, it leaned aggressively into genre.
Detective story first.
Superhero story second.
That creative choice may explain why critics responded so positively.
It Also Did Something Superhero Adaptations Rarely Attempt
The decision to offer the entire season in both color and black-and-white was remarkably unusual.
Black-and-white versions of modern superhero projects have appeared before.
But usually as alternate editions released later.
Spider-Noir made the format part of the viewing choice from the beginning.
That transformed cinematography from a production detail into part of the show's identity.
It also helps explain the Emmy nomination for cinematography.
This was a show consciously asking viewers to notice how it looked.
Could Another Platform Save Spider-Noir?
There is currently no credible report that another service is preparing to rescue it.
The situation is complicated by rights.
Spider-Noir was produced through Sony Pictures Television for MGM+ and Prime Video as part of a larger corporate arrangement.
A hypothetical rescue would therefore involve more than another streamer simply deciding it likes the show.
Rights, contracts, cast availability and production arrangements would all matter.
Fans can certainly campaign for a continuation.
For now, Season 2 is not happening.
Could Nicolas Cage Return as Spider-Noir Somewhere Else?
This is somewhat more imaginable than a full-series revival, although nothing has been announced.
Cage has already played versions of Spider-Noir in both animation and live action.
The multiverse nature of modern Spider-Man storytelling theoretically makes future appearances possible.
But there is currently no confirmed continuation.
Anything beyond the canceled series is speculation.
The Story Apparently Did Not End on an Impossible Cliffhanger
One small consolation is that Season 1 was not universally described as ending with an unbearable unresolved cliffhanger.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that the eight-episode run left room for future adventures but did not make another season absolutely necessary to resolve the immediate story.
That matters now.
Fans may want more.
At least the cancellation does not necessarily mean the existing season becomes completely unusable as a self-contained experience.
All Eight Episodes Remain Available
Despite the cancellation, Prime Video has not removed the show.
Entertainment Weekly confirmed that all eight episodes remain available to stream.
That gives the series an opportunity to develop the kind of afterlife canceled television occasionally receives.
Some shows become larger after cancellation.
New viewers discover them.
Awards attention creates another wave.
The cancellation itself generates curiosity.
Spider-Noir now has all three possibilities operating at once.
The Emmys Could Make This Story Even Stranger
As of September 5, the Emmy results are still ahead.
That means a peculiar scenario remains possible.
Prime Video could watch Spider-Noir win multiple Emmy Awards after already canceling it.
Its nominations are concentrated in categories where its technical strengths are obvious.
Whether it wins any remains to be seen.
But if it does, the awards acceptance speeches will arrive with everyone already knowing that the show has no future season.
Few things capture the strange economics of streaming television better.
Critical Acclaim Is No Longer a Shield Against Cancellation
There was once a relatively understandable hierarchy in television.
Strong ratings helped keep a show alive.
Awards could help struggling prestige programs survive.
Critical acclaim improved reputation.
Syndication created long-term financial value.
Streaming disrupted much of that model.
Platforms possess enormous amounts of private user data.
A series can appear successful publicly and still fail internal benchmarks invisible to everyone outside the company.
That creates frustrating situations for viewers.
They see:
92%.
11 Emmy nominations.
Hundreds of millions of viewing minutes.
Then:
Canceled.
The missing variable is the platform's internal calculation.
A 92% Rotten Tomatoes Score Does Not Mean 92% of Viewers Loved It
This is worth clarifying because Rotten Tomatoes percentages are frequently misunderstood.
The 92% Tomatometer does not mean critics gave the show an average score of 9.2 out of 10.
It means 92% of counted reviews were classified as positive.
Likewise, the 90% Popcornmeter is a measure based on qualifying audience ratings, not proof that 90% of all Prime Video viewers liked the show.
Rotten Tomatoes therefore tells us something valuable:
Critical consensus was strongly positive.
It does not tell us whether enough Prime subscribers watched to satisfy Amazon.
The Emmy Nominations Also Need Context
Similarly:
11 nominations sounds like Spider-Noir was one of the dominant drama series of the year.
Technically, it was one of Prime Video's most recognized programs.
But the nominations did not include major acting categories or Outstanding Drama Series.
The recognition came mostly from craft branches.
That is still impressive.
It just tells a more specific story.
The industry admired the show's construction.
Was Spider-Noir a Failure?
Calling it a straightforward failure would ignore too much evidence.
It achieved:
A 92% critic score.
A 90% audience score.
Eleven Emmy nominations.
851 million U.S. Nielsen streaming minutes during its first measured week.
739 million the next.
It generated substantial press coverage.
And Cage's performance gave the series an immediately recognizable identity.
Whatever internal metric killed Season 2, Spider-Noir achieved several conventional definitions of success.
That is precisely why the cancellation is news.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Spider-Noir Cancellation
Was Spider-Noir really canceled?
Yes.
Prime Video will not produce a second season. Multiple major entertainment publications confirmed the cancellation on September 4, 2026.
How many seasons of Spider-Noir are there?
One.
The complete series currently consists of eight episodes.
How many episodes were in Season 1?
Eight.
Will there be a Spider-Noir Season 2?
Not at Prime Video under the current decision.
The show has officially been canceled after Season 1.
Why was Spider-Noir canceled?
Prime Video has not publicly provided a definitive reason.
Claims that one specific factor—ratings, budget, reshoots or another issue—caused the decision should therefore be treated cautiously unless Amazon or the producers confirm it.
Was Spider-Noir critically acclaimed?
Broadly, yes.
Rotten Tomatoes currently reports a 92% Tomatometer score from 112 critic reviews.
What is the Spider-Noir audience score?
Rotten Tomatoes currently shows approximately 90% on the Popcornmeter from more than 1,000 ratings.
Did Spider-Noir receive 11 Emmy nominations?
Yes.
Amazon's official 2026 Emmy announcement lists 11 nominations for the series.
Was that the most for any Prime Video show in 2026?
Yes.
Spider-Noir led Prime Video's 2026 slate with 11 nominations, followed by Fallout with 10.
Was Nicolas Cage nominated for an Emmy?
No.
The Television Academy's official Nicolas Cage record currently lists no Emmy nomination.
What were the Emmy nominations for?
The nominations primarily recognized production design, cinematography, title design, makeup, music, sound, visual effects and stunt work.
Did Spider-Noir perform badly in streaming ratings?
Its public Nielsen debut was actually strong.
It generated 851 million U.S. viewing minutes during May 25–31 and ranked second among streaming originals.
How did it perform the following week?
Nielsen measured approximately 739 million minutes from June 1–7, placing it fourth among streaming originals.
Does Nielsen measure every Spider-Noir viewer?
No.
Nielsen's streaming rankings measure U.S. viewing through television sets and do not capture the complete worldwide audience across every device.
When did Spider-Noir premiere?
It premiered on Prime Video on May 27, 2026.
Who did Nicolas Cage play?
Cage played Ben Reilly, a private investigator and the superhero of this alternate 1930s New York.
Was Nicolas Cage previously Spider-Man Noir?
Yes.
He voiced Spider-Man Noir in the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse before starring in the live-action series.
Was this Nicolas Cage’s first TV series?
It was his first regular leading television role.
Could you watch Spider-Noir in black-and-white?
Yes.
Prime Video offered both a black-and-white presentation and a full-color version.
Why was the show offered in black-and-white?
The format reinforced its 1930s hard-boiled detective and classic film-noir aesthetic.
A color version was provided for viewers who preferred a more conventional presentation.
Who else starred in Spider-Noir?
The ensemble included Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston and Brendan Gleeson.
Who created the series?
Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot served as co-showrunners, with executive producers including Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal and Nicolas Cage.
Can another streaming platform rescue it?
There is currently no confirmed rescue effort.
Is Sony still developing Spider-Man-related television shows with Amazon?
Yes.
Entertainment Weekly reports that another project under the Sony Pictures Television/Amazon MGM Studios agreement remains in development.
Can I still watch Spider-Noir?
Yes.
All eight episodes remain available on Prime Video.
Is the cancellation surprising?
Given the combination of strong reviews, respectable public streaming figures and industry-leading Emmy recognition for Prime Video, yes.
But streaming renewal decisions rely on internal economics and audience data that are not publicly available.
What is the strangest thing about the cancellation?
Probably the timing.
Prime Video canceled Spider-Noir while the show was still heading into the Emmy ceremonies with 11 nominations—the highest total of any Prime Video program this year.
The story therefore ends with a strange contradiction.
Spider-Noir was apparently successful at many of the things audiences can actually see.
Critics liked it.
Viewers reviewing it liked it.
The Television Academy noticed it.
Nielsen recorded a strong launch.
Its visual experiment worked.
Nicolas Cage finally got his major television starring vehicle.
Yet somewhere inside the spreadsheets that decide the future of streaming television, the equation still came out:
No Season 2.
Perhaps that is what makes the cancellation sting more than the usual one-season disappearance.
Spider-Noir did not obviously fail.
It arrived with an absurd premise and made that premise work.
It took the most familiar superhero mythology in modern popular culture and dragged it through cigarette smoke, rain, shadows and 1930s detective fiction.
It gave audiences two visual versions of the same series.
It gave Nicolas Cage exactly the kind of strange role only Nicolas Cage could make feel inevitable.
And it earned 11 Emmy nominations for doing it.
Now its first season is also its last.
For once, Spider-Man's greatest enemy was not the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus or the multiverse.
It was the renewal meeting.
