The "Spider-Noir" Trailer Underlines That the Best Bet for a Spider-Man Spinoff is Spider-Man

Plus, saying goodbye to James Van Der Beek.

Hello, good people. I’m working on a new Viva Physical Media column to hopefully go up over this long weekend, depending on how much I can finish watching. But in the meantime, some thoughts coming out of the week on an attention-getting trailer for a new streaming series and a sad Hollywood passing.

Does Whatever a Noiry Spider Can

This week, Prime Video released the trailer for the new series Spider-Noir - or the trailers, to be precise, since there are both black & white and color versions of the same preview, just like the show will be available to watch in both formats.

And it looks great! The mixture of a black & white (let’s face it, that’s the version that feels “right”) noir story, Spider-Man web-swinging action, and Nicolas Cage being Nicolas Cage looks like a really fascinating and wild mash-up.

Spider-Noir is produced by Sony, as part of their overall deal for the Spider-Man movie rights. Seeing the highly positive reaction to the trailer made me once more think about what a misfire it had been in recent years for Sony to attempt to do one project after another based on Spider-Man-based characters they hold the rights to, like Morbius, Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter, and why Spider-Noir looks to be an appreciated correction.