A report has surfaced claiming that Brendan Gleeson (Banshees of Inisherin) has joined Nicolas Cage in Sony Pictures’ live-action Spider-Man Noir series.
The news comes from insider Daniel Richtman, who also says that Gleeson will be taking on the role of a villain in the story.
There’s not any kind of information to share on who Gleeson might be playing, but Spider-Man Noir has faced off against multiple Noir-style versions of every classic Spider-Man villain. So, it’s hard to guess who he might be playing.
The series will follow an “aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.”
It was previously reported that the show will be set in its own universe, and the main character will not be Peter Parker.
In this noir-inspired world, in the comics Peter Parker takes on the mantle of Spider-Man, but with a distinctively cool twist. Clad in a trench coat and fedora, Spider-Man Noir fights crime in the shadows of New York City, navigating a landscape filled with corruption and danger.
The character’s design and narrative draw heavily from the film noir genre, incorporating elements of detective fiction and a morally ambiguous atmosphere. Throughout his adventures, Spider-Man Noir confronts a rogue gallery of villains.
When previously talking about playing the character, Cage said, “It’s no secret that I love the character.” He also described the character as a “mash-up of sorts,” one that was inspired by Golden Age actors like Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart.
The actor said: “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 mash-up of, sort of, a [Jungian] Lichtenstein, mash up by way of Bogart and Cagney.
The project is being developed by The Punisher writer and producer Steve Lightfoot as the co-showrunner and he is joined by Oren Uziel, who is a writer on the project and will serve alongside Lightfoot as co-showrunner. Harry Bradbeer will executive produce and direct the first two episodes.
What Spider-Man villain would you like to see Gleeson play?
