• Marvel Animation has released the first trailer for X-Men ’97 Season 2, confirming that the Emmy-nominated Disney+ series will return on July 1 — two years after the first season concluded
• The trailer confirms Deadpool will appear in Season 2, making it his first animated appearance in the current Marvel continuity; the character’s inclusion had been teased ahead of the trailer’s release
• Season 2 also introduces Danger — a character from the X-Men comics — and features new character costumes; the episode count for the season has been revealed alongside the premiere date announcement
• X-Men ’97 has been described as the most-watched Disney+ animated series; the Season 2 trailer dropped to significant fan response

The X-Men are back — and they brought Deadpool. Marvel Animation released the first full trailer for X-Men ’97 Season 2 this week, and it confirmed what many fans had been hoping for: Deadpool will appear in the new season, marking the character’s return to animation in Marvel’s current continuity, per Collider.

The season premieres July 1 on Disney+. The trailer is dense — new costumes for the core team, the introduction of Danger (a synthetic being from X-Men comics lore capable of generating lifelike simulations), and what appears to be a substantially elevated threat scale from Season 1. Season 1 ended on several unresolved cliffhangers that the second season will be expected to address, per Comic Book Movie.

Deadpool in the Animated Universe

The Deadpool confirmation is the headline grab. Ryan Reynolds voiced the character in the live-action films, but this appearance is in the animated context of X-Men ’97 — a separate continuity. Two years after Season 1 wrapped, the show returns as one of Marvel’s more critically lauded recent projects, per MovieWeb. The July 1 premiere drops X-Men ’97 into a crowded summer streaming landscape — but given the response to that trailer, it has the attention it needs.

The post X-Men ’97 Season 2 Trailer Confirms Deadpool — and a July 1 Premiere Date on Disney+ appeared first on Cream.

• Bandai SH Figuarts action figure listings have leaked plot details for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, describing Peter Parker as living “alone, erased from everyone’s memory” and undergoing “uncontrollable transformations” — language widely interpreted as pointing toward a Man-Spider arc
• A separate figure listing confirms Savage Hulk (not Smart Hulk) will appear in the film; Mark Ruffalo’s presence as Bruce Banner was shown in the first trailer, but Marvel had not officially confirmed his green alter ego would appear
• The film is also bringing back organic web-shooting — a power Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man had in Sam Raimi’s trilogy but that never carried over to Tom Holland’s MCU version, which uses mechanical web-shooters
• Kevin Feige told press the film is “focused on the classic elements of Spider-Man” — a significant reset from the cosmic and multiversal stakes of Holland’s previous three films
• Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, is releasing this summer; the cast includes the Hulk, the Punisher, Tombstone, and Scorpion, alongside new images spotlighting Daredevil villain connections

Two months out from release, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is keeping most of its plot under wraps. That changed this week — not through an official Marvel announcement, but through toy listings.

Bandai’s SH Figuarts line of action figures, sourced via French retailer France-Figures, included product descriptions that are doing a lot of narrative heavy lifting. Per ComingSoon, the Peter Parker figure’s description reads: “Peter Parker lives alone, erased from everyone’s memory. In Brand New Day, he faces new threats in New York while undergoing uncontrollable transformations.” A separate listing for a Hulk figure confirms he appears in Savage form — the out-of-control green version, not the calm, articulate Smart Hulk seen in recent MCU entries.

The “uncontrollable transformations” language, combined with the teaser footage that showed Parker with black eyes and what appeared to be organic webbing growing from his wrists, has fed months of speculation that the film will feature a Man-Spider arc — a storyline from the comics in which Peter Parker’s spider-half begins to take over his human biology. Nothing has been officially confirmed, but the toy copy isn’t exactly subtle.

Back to Basics — With a Twist

Kevin Feige, speaking to press ahead of the film, framed Brand New Day as a deliberate course correction after three films that sent Spider-Man to space, into the multiverse, and up against Thanos. “Brand New Day is focused on the classic elements of Spider-Man,” Feige told Comic Book Movie. Peter Parker is back in New York, broke and anonymous, fighting street-level crime after the events of No Way Home wiped him from everyone’s memory.

Part of that classicism includes a notable callback: organic web-shooting is returning. In Sam Raimi’s trilogy, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man generated webs biologically, a controversial departure from the comics that many fans actually came to love. Holland’s MCU Spider-Man has always used mechanical web-shooters built by Tony Stark. The return of organic webbing — apparently tied to Peter’s physical changes in the film — reconnects the character to both the Raimi era and his comic origins simultaneously.

The full cast picture is still coming into focus. Images released this week spotlight connections to Daredevil’s villain world. Confirmed appearances include the Hulk (in Savage form, per the toy leak), the Punisher, Tombstone, and Scorpion. Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is at the helm. Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters this summer.

The post Toy Leaks Just Revealed Major ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Plot Details — Savage Hulk, Organic Webs, and a Man-Spider Transformation appeared first on Cream.

• Spider-Noir launched on Amazon Prime Video on May 27 and has set an all-time Marvel audience score record on Rotten Tomatoes: 91% from critics and 92% from audiences — higher than X-Men ’97, the original Netflix Daredevil, and every MCU series
• Nicolas Cage plays Ben "The Spider" Reilly, a seasoned private detective in 1930s New York who moonlights as a masked superhero; the show is not an MCU series but connects to the larger Marvel multiverse
• The supporting cast includes Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston, and Brendan Gleeson; the show was produced by the producers of the Spider-Verse films
• Reviews highlight Cage’s physical comedy and character work — he does in-character impressions of Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart as disguises — as a major factor in the show’s success
• The Financial Times gave it 4/5: "well-crafted enough, adult enough, and just about original enough, to offer a deserved moment of reprieve"; the Daily Telegraph also gave it 4/5

Nobody quite knew what to make of Spider-Noir before it launched. A 1930s noir take on Spider-Man, starring Nicolas Cage, on Amazon Prime Video — it was ambitious in the specific way that can go either beautifully right or memorably wrong.

It went right. The series debuted Wednesday on Prime Video and has already done something no Marvel project has done before: it set the all-time audience score record on Rotten Tomatoes across all Marvel properties. Per Forbes, Spider-Noir sits at a 91% critic score and 92% audience score — placing it above every Marvel series including the beloved X-Men ’97 (91% audience), the original Netflix Daredevil (90%), and Agents of SHIELD (91%).

The show stars Cage as Ben Reilly, a world-weary private eye working in Depression-era New York who leads a secret life as the city’s only masked superhero, known as "The Spider." The series leans hard into its noir influences — black-and-white-tinged visuals, voiceover narration, jazz-era New York — and uses the aesthetic as a foundation rather than a gimmick.

What the Critics Are Saying

The Financial Times gave it four out of five stars: "Audiences have had enough of the churn of movie sequels and their declining quality. But shows like this are well-crafted enough, adult enough, and just about original enough, to offer a deserved moment of reprieve." The Daily Telegraph matched the score: "Spider-Noir is as much a tribute to the golden era of sleuthing flicks as it is to caped crusaders getting their tights in a twist."

Not every review was glowing — per Just Jared’s roundup, Vulture called it "just another disposable exercise in IP maintenance," and the LA Times described it as "something of a stunt." But those were outliers in an otherwise strong reception.

The Cage Factor

Multiple reviews single out Cage’s performance as the engine that makes the show work — specifically, the physical and vocal creativity he brings to Ben Reilly’s habit of adopting disguises. In one episode, he slips into a full Peter Lorre impression — voice, posture, the hand on the back of the head — to talk his way past a suspicious doctor. In another, he channels Humphrey Bogart, flipping up his hat brim, donning thick glasses, and inventing a character called Pete the maintenance man. In a third, he becomes a bumbling Jimmy Stewart type to get past hospital staff.

It’s the kind of unhinged, committed Cage performance that audiences tend to reward, and in this case it’s calibrated to the material in a way that doesn’t feel like a joke.

The show was produced by the team behind the Spider-Verse animated films and, per early analysis of the series, does quietly connect to the broader Marvel multiverse — though it’s not part of the MCU proper. Season 1 is streaming now on Prime Video.

The post Nicolas Cage’s ‘Spider-Noir’ Just Broke a Marvel Record on Rotten Tomatoes — and the Reviews Explain Why appeared first on Cream.

• ElevenLabs has partnered with Stan Lee Universe to add the late Marvel Comics legend to its Iconic Marketplace — a commercial licensing platform featuring AI-generated celebrity voices and likenesses
• Lee’s AI voice, built from professional recordings, will narrate audiobooks through the Eleven Reader app, starting with Treasure Island as the first entry in the new Stan Lee Book Club of the Month
• His likeness is also available in comic book panel-inspired templates, available to users starting Wednesday
• Stan Lee Universe is a joint venture between Genius Brands International and POW! Entertainment — the latter being the company Lee founded after his Marvel era
• Fan reaction on social media has been largely negative, with responses on X ranging from “corny” and “weird” to “even in death he’s still being exploited”

Stan Lee died in November 2018. This week, his voice showed up in an AI product catalog.

ElevenLabs — the AI audio company that raised $500 million at an $11 billion valuation — has announced a partnership with Stan Lee Universe to add Lee to its Iconic Marketplace, a commercial licensing platform where companies can pay to use AI-generated celebrity voices. The deal covers Lee’s voice, his image, and his likeness. Per Variety, ElevenLabs built the voice model using professional recordings of Lee made during his lifetime.

Stan Lee Universe is a joint venture between Genius Brands International and POW! Entertainment — the company Lee founded after his Marvel era — built specifically to manage and license his name, likeness, and intellectual property. His estate had already granted Marvel Studios the rights to use his likeness in films and at Disney parks back in 2022. This deal extends that logic considerably further: instead of controlled appearances in specific Marvel productions, his voice is now available as a licensable commercial product.

What the Deal Actually Lets You Do

Through the partnership, companies can license Lee’s AI voice and likeness for commercial projects. Individual users get access to comic book panel-inspired templates featuring his image. And through ElevenLabs’ Eleven Reader app, listeners can hear audiobooks narrated in Lee’s voice — the first title in the new Stan Lee Book Club of the Month is Treasure Island, scheduled for next month.

ElevenLabs also included superhero-themed music presets in the package — presets with names like “Superhero Cinematic Swells” and “Retro Hero Fanfare” — for anyone who wants an authentic comic-book soundtrack alongside the AI voice. Lee shares the Iconic Marketplace alongside Michael Caine, David Hasselhoff, Judy Garland, John Wayne, Ricardo Montalban, and Albert Einstein.

Chaz Rainey, an attorney and board member for Stan Lee Universe, framed the partnership as an extension of how Lee engaged with fans in life: “Stan always believed in meeting his fans where they were: in the pages of a comic, at a convention, or in a quick on-screen cameo. This partnership is a way of continuing that. Fans have always told us that when they read his comics, they hear the words in Stan’s voice, and now, thanks to ElevenLabs, we can make that a reality.”

The Reaction

The announcement landed with mixed to hostile reception online. On X, responses to posts about the deal included words like “corny” and “weird,” and at least one user wrote simply: “Even in death he’s still being exploited.” Others directed criticism at Lee’s family and associates for allowing the likeness acquisition — a charged topic, since multiple people close to Lee in his final years have faced accusations of behavior that AARP has described as potentially consistent with elder abuse.

The deal arrives at a moment when the broader AI-likeness conversation is particularly fraught. SAG-AFTRA fought a nearly four-month strike in 2023 in part over AI protections for living performers, and that fight is ongoing. Using the voices and images of people who can no longer consent to any of it adds a layer the union contract negotiations haven’t fully addressed.

Lee co-created Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, among dozens of other characters. He was 95 when he died. A generation of Marvel fans knows him as much from his cameos as from the comics — the quick appearances in nearly every MCU film, always delighted, always in on the joke. Whether an AI audiobook narration of Treasure Island is a fitting continuation of that legacy or something else entirely is the question fans seem to be arguing about right now.

The post Stan Lee’s Voice Is Back — ElevenLabs Just Licensed It, and Fans Are Not Happy appeared first on Cream.

• Alfred Molina confirmed in a new Variety interview that he would return as Doc Ock — “I would do it again”
• He revealed details about an original three-movie deal for the role that fans didn’t know about
• Molina currently stars in two Netflix projects: The Boroughs and Remarkably Bright Creatures
• His Doctor Octopus appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home alongside his original Spider-Man 2 run
• Whether Marvel/Sony will actually call is a separate question

Alfred Molina is not closing any doors.

In a new interview with Variety, the actor confirmed what fans have long hoped: he’d be happy to return as Otto “Doc Ock” Octavius in another Spider-Man film. “I would do it again,” he told the outlet, adding that the conversation about coming back has never really gone away.

More surprising was what he revealed about his original deal: Molina disclosed there was a three-movie arrangement attached to the Doc Ock role from the beginning — a detail that reframes everything fans thought they knew about why the character returned so seamlessly in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The contractual groundwork, it seems, was laid back in the Sam Raimi era.

The Character’s Legacy

Molina’s Doc Ock in 2004’s Spider-Man 2 is still widely considered one of the best superhero film villains ever put on screen — tragic, intelligent, genuinely threatening. His return in No Way Home gave fans the reunion moment they’d been waiting for, and by most accounts, he delivered again.

Den of Geek argues he could return but perhaps shouldn’t — the concern being that over-revisiting legacy characters risks diluting what made them special in the first place. It’s a reasonable counterpoint. But Molina’s own enthusiasm, combined with the original deal structure he described, suggests this isn’t just wishful thinking from fan corners of the internet.

What He’s Up to Now

While the Marvel/Sony machinery decides what it wants to do, Molina has been busy. He’s currently on Netflix in The Boroughs, playing a retiree battling aliens, and in Remarkably Bright Creatures, voicing a giant Pacific octopus — which is either a coincidence or a very deliberate piece of casting symmetry.

Doc Ock or not, the man is not sitting still.

The post Alfred Molina Says He’d Play Doc Ock Again — and There’s Already Been a Conversation appeared first on Cream.

• Prime Video dropped the final Spider-Noir trailer in two formats: “Authentic Black & White” and “True-Hue Full Color”
• Nicolas Cage plays Ben Reilly, a retired 1930s vigilante-turned-PI dragged back into the fight against mob boss Silvermane
• The trailer ends with Cage flipping Spider-Man’s most iconic line: “With no power comes no responsibility”
• The eight-episode series premieres on MGM+ on May 25, then globally on Prime Video on May 27
• The show was developed with the Oscar-winning Into the Spider-Verse team: Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Amy Pascal

Nicolas Cage is back in black — and he’s got a lot to say about responsibility. Prime Video dropped the final trailer for Spider-Noir this week, and if the footage is anything to go by, this is shaping up to be one of the most distinctive superhero projects in years. Set to Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” and dripping with 1930s atmosphere, the trailer leans hard into deadpan humor and pulp noir tropes while teasing a web of villains that’s bigger than anyone probably expected.

As has been the case since the first teaser, the trailer comes in two flavors: “Authentic Black & White” and “True-Hue Full Color” — a dual-format gimmick that’s actually not a gimmick at all. The showrunners are calling the color version “True Hue,” and fans will be able to toggle between both when the series lands on Prime Video. (Cage himself reportedly suggested releasing the show in both formats.)

The final trailer opens on a Ben Reilly who is very much done being a hero. He’s retired his costume, hung out his PI shingle, and has a philosophy to match: “With no power comes no responsibility.” Yes, that’s a direct inversion of the most famous line in Spider-Man history, and it lands perfectly. It’s the clearest signal yet that this show knows exactly what it’s doing.

A Spider-Man Story Like No Other

Cage plays Ben Reilly — not Peter Parker — a seasoned, down-on-his-luck private investigator operating in 1930s New York City who once fought crime as a wall-crawling vigilante called The Spider. The name is deliberate. Showrunner Oren Uziel has explained that the team went with “The Spider” over “Spider-Man” to honor the tradition of pulp hero names like The Shadow and The Phantom. And choosing Ben Reilly over Peter Parker wasn’t an accident either.

“Peter Parker is so synonymous to me with a young character and a coming-of-age story,” Uziel said. “The Ben Reilly character allows it to immediately distinguish itself from a Peter Parker story.”

What we get instead is closer to a Humphrey Bogart movie with webs. Cage has described his performance as a mix between Bogart and Bugs Bunny, and somehow that tracks perfectly with what the trailer is selling. Uziel put it even more directly: “The thing that I said a lot from start to finish was, ‘We’re really trying to make an old Bogart movie.’ It’s just that Bogart happens to be Spider-Man.”

The Casablanca parallel runs deep, too. “One of the touchstones of this was Rick from Casablanca,” Uziel explained. “He starts off the movie saying, ‘I don’t stick my neck out for anybody,’ but you know that deep down he’s probably going to stick his neck out for somebody. Ben Reilly is in a similar position. He’s insisting on a thing that we know he doesn’t really believe in his heart.”

The Villains Are Here — and They’re Wild

The trailer also gives us our best look yet at the rogues’ gallery Reilly will be up against. Brendan Gleeson plays Silvermane, an Irish crime boss who has essentially taken over New York City and is assembling a crew of superpowered muscle to cement his grip on the city. Among them: Jack Huston as Flint Marko, who transforms into this universe’s version of Sandman. The trailer also teases appearances from alternate-universe takes on Electro (here called Megawatt) and a character named Jimmy Addison, among others.

The prospect of watching Cage and Gleeson — two of the most magnetic actors working today — go head-to-head in a Marvel-infused noir setting is, frankly, a lot to process. These are 1930s versions of these villains, so their looks and abilities are grounded in the era’s aesthetic rather than the comic book bombast fans might expect. It works.

Lamorne Morris plays Robbie Robertson, Reilly’s optimistic journalist friend who keeps nudging his buddy toward his better self. Li Jun Li is Cat Hardy, the nightclub singer femme fatale who walks into Reilly’s office and sets the whole plot in motion — Li has said she based her portrayal on Anna May Wong, Rita Hayworth, and Lauren Bacall. Karen Rodriguez rounds out the core as Janet, Reilly’s sharp and loyal secretary.

Same Voice, Different Universe

Cage, of course, voiced a version of Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and its 2023 sequel Across the Spider-Verse — and he’s set to reprise that animated role in the still-upcoming Beyond the Spider-Verse. But this live-action Ben Reilly is not the same character.

“Same character, different universe,” Uziel has said. “It’s a different flavor of that character, even though it’s still Nic’s voice. It’s not a continuation of Into the Spider-Verse. Once Phil and Chris introduced the idea of the multiverse, I think you’re allowed to take things and make them your own.”

The goal, Uziel said, was always “to make a version of Spider-Man that no one had ever seen before.” And when Cage watched the finished season back, the reaction was apparently something special. “He spoke his own lines back, with pleasure and glee,” Uziel recalled. “It was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever experienced.”

The creative pedigree behind the show is serious. Emmy-winning director Harry Bradbeer — the mind behind Fleabag and Killing Eve — directed and executive produced the first two episodes. Uziel and co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot (Marvel’s The Punisher) developed the series alongside the Into the Spider-Verse team: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal, all of whom serve as executive producers.

The show is also reportedly being submitted for Emmy consideration — which, given what the trailer is promising, doesn’t feel like a reach.

Spider-Noir premieres on MGM+ on May 25, 2026, with all eight episodes dropping globally on Prime Video on May 27. You can watch in black and white, in color, or — if you’re the dedicated type — both.

The post Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Noir Final Trailer Is Here appeared first on Cream.

• The final trailer for Prime Video’s Spider-Noir is out, dropping days before the May 27 premiere
• Nicolas Cage’s Ben Reilly signs off with a twist on the classic line: “With no power comes no responsibility”
• The 8-episode series streams in both black-and-white and full color, with Cage saying he designed his performance for B&W
• Brendan Gleeson plays crime boss Silvermane, with alternate-universe versions of Sandman and Electro also appearing
• Cage also revealed he turned down the Green Goblin role in Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man to do Adaptation instead

The final trailer for Spider-Noir is here, and Nicolas Cage’s version of the wall-crawler has a very different philosophy than the one Peter Parker lives by. As the clip closes out, Cage’s Ben Reilly — a retired vigilante turned down-on-his-luck private eye in 1930s New York — delivers his personal creed with a smirk: “With no power comes no responsibility.” It’s a deliberate, knowing inversion of the most famous line in Spider-Man history, and it tells you everything you need to know about what kind of show this is going to be.

Prime Video dropped the trailer in two versions — “Authentic Black & White” and “True-Hue Full Color” — ahead of the series’ premiere on MGM+ on May 25 and globally on Prime Video on May 27.

The trailer wastes no time establishing the stakes. Reilly has walked away from his life as “The Spider,” but crime boss Silvermane — played with obvious relish by Brendan Gleeson — is assembling a crew of superpowered muscle, including what appear to be 1930s-era versions of Sandman and Electro. Eventually, reluctantly, Ben suits up again.

“With no power comes no responsibility” isn’t just a punchline. It’s a character statement. Showrunner Oren Uziel has been open about the Casablanca DNA running through the show’s DNA. “One of the touchstones of this was Rick from Casablanca,” he explained. “He starts off the movie saying, ‘I don’t stick my neck out for anybody,’ but you know that deep down he’s probably going to stick his neck out for somebody. He’s just trying to convince himself he won’t. I think Ben Reilly is in a similar position. He’s insisting on a thing that we know he doesn’t really believe in his heart.”

Why Ben Reilly — and Not Peter Parker

This is not your standard Spider-Man origin story, and that was entirely intentional. “Peter Parker is so synonymous to me with a young character and a coming-of-age story,” Uziel said. “The Ben Reilly character allows it to immediately distinguish itself from a Peter Parker story.” The name of the hero also got a period-appropriate makeover — he goes by “The Spider,” not Spider-Man, nodding to pulp-era heroes like The Shadow and The Phantom.

In a candid interview with Digital Trends, Uziel described his core creative pitch as deceptively simple: “What if you made a Bogart movie where Bogart just happened to be Spider-Man?” That framing shaped everything — the setting, the tone, the kind of villain Ben faces, and the kind of damage he carries. “He’s way older than we’ve ever seen him,” Uziel noted, “and he’s dealing with very different issues and problems than a high school kid.”

Cage, who is 62, leaned hard into that. According to Uziel, the actor showed up to set every day with a new reference — a movement from Bogart’s The Big Sleep, a line reading from James Cagney, a physicality borrowed from Peter Lorre or Edward G. Robinson. “It was always haunted by the heroes of noir’s past,” Uziel said. “He read the material, responded to the material, and then got off-book immediately. By the table read, he knew every script by heart.”

For Cage himself, this project arrived at a very specific moment. Speaking to Extra, he admitted that after Dream Scenario, he genuinely wondered if he had anything left to say on screen. “I got to a point where I was just like, ‘I think I’ve said everything I’ve had to say with cinema. I don’t know what else to do,'” he said. Spider-Noir — his first television series after four decades in film — gave him a new frontier. “I have great respect for any actor that carries a season of television. It’s harder than movies because it’s a different dynamic, a different process.”

What specifically excited him was the chance to dig into the arachnid side of the character in a way the animated films never could. “What would that do to someone’s physiology and their psychology?” he said. “Let’s see if it would change the way he moves or the way he thinks.”

The Black-and-White Question — And Why Cage Suggested Color

The dual-format presentation of Spider-Noir has been a talking point since the show was first announced, and Cage has a clear answer on which version he prefers. “I’m all about the black and white. I designed my performance for black and white, and I’m glad I saw it that way,” he said.

But here’s the twist: the color version was actually his idea. “It was actually one of my ideas to shoot it in color, because I am aware of teenagers, and I’m aware they don’t have that much experience with black and white,” Cage explained. His hope is that younger viewers start with the color version, then migrate to black-and-white and get curious about the classic films the show is referencing. “They just open a treasure trove of wealth of great American cinema. That’s the dream.”

It’s a thoughtful, almost pedagogical approach — and very on-brand for an actor who has always treated cinema as something to be studied and honored, not just consumed.

The Green Goblin He Never Played

With all the Spider-Man press swirling, Cage also addressed a piece of alternate history that’s been floating around for years. He confirmed to People that he was in serious conversations with Sam Raimi about playing Norman Osborn — the Green Goblin — in the 2002 Spider-Man film. He passed, choosing instead to star in Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, a decision that earned him his second Oscar nomination.

“For me, that was the right choice at the time,” Cage said simply. The role went to Willem Dafoe, whose Green Goblin has since become one of the most memed performances in superhero movie history. “I’ve played plenty of villains. I like both. I think they’re both important parts of cinema. I would not want to get trapped into doing one thing.”

It’s hard to argue with the outcome — for either actor. But it does make you wonder what a Cage Goblin would have looked like.

What’s Coming When Spider-Noir Premieres

The full cast around Cage includes Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston, and Brendan Gleeson, with a deep guest roster featuring Lukas Haas, Cameron Britton, Amanda Schull, and others. Harry Bradbeer, the director behind Fleabag and Killing Eve, directed and executive-produced the first two episodes. Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal — the Oscar-winning team behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — developed the series alongside Uziel and co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot.

Notably, while Into the Spider-Verse is what put Cage’s voice in the Spider-Noir suit, this isn’t a continuation of that story. “Same character, different universe,” as Uziel put it. “It’s a different flavor of that character, even though it’s still Nic’s voice.”

The show is already being submitted for Emmy consideration, according to reports — a bold move for a first season, but not a surprising one given the pedigree involved.

Spider-Noir premieres on MGM+ on May 25 and globally on Prime Video on May 27. Both formats — black-and-white and color — will be available from day one. The choice, as Cage would say, is yours. But he already knows which one he’s watching.

The post Nicolas Cage Flips Spider-Man’s Most Famous Line in Spider-Noir Final Trailer appeared first on Cream.

• Insider MyTimeToShineH claims Kevin Feige wants Venom in Avengers: Secret Wars (Dec. 12, 2027)
• Tom Hardy’s Venom left a symbiote fragment in the MCU during Spider-Man: No Way Home
• Mark Ruffalo recently hinted Spider-Man will fight “an alien” in a future MCU film
• Secret Wars is already casting extras for “enhanced beings” ahead of its summer shoot
• The Russo Brothers are directing; the confirmed cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Tom Holland

Tom Hardy’s Venom may finally be getting his MCU moment — and it could come in the biggest Marvel movie ever made. According to insider MyTimeToShineH, Kevin Feige is eager to include Venom in Avengers: Secret Wars, the Multiverse Saga finale currently slated for December 12, 2027.

The scoop is unconfirmed for now, but MyTimeToShineH has a strong track record on Marvel intel, and the timing makes a certain kind of sense. Ever since Hardy’s Eddie Brock stumbled into the MCU — and then stumbled right back out — fans have been waiting for the Lethal Protector to properly share a screen with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. That moment has been teased, dangled, and delayed for years. Secret Wars could finally be where it pays off.

The Breadcrumbs Are Already There

The groundwork was quietly laid in 2021. At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, a small piece of the Venom symbiote was left behind in the mainline MCU universe when Hardy’s version of the character was pulled back to his own reality. It was the kind of detail that Marvel doesn’t drop by accident.

Then last month, Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo — who is set to appear in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day — was at a Q&A at Italy’s Ministry of Education and Merit when he let something slip. He didn’t say Venom by name, but he told the audience, “I promise you 1000% that [Spider-Man] will be fighting an alien in the future.” Whether that’s a hint at Venom specifically or something else entirely, the comment immediately set fan communities buzzing.

For comic readers, the Venom-in-Secret-Wars angle carries extra weight. In the original 1984 Marvel Comics run, the Secret Wars storyline is literally where Peter Parker first bonds with the alien symbiote — the one that eventually becomes Venom. If the Russo Brothers are drawing from that source material, an encounter between Spider-Man and the symbiote on Battleworld wouldn’t just be fan service. It would be faithful adaptation.

What We Know About Secret Wars So Far

Production on Avengers: Secret Wars is set to begin later this summer, primarily in the UK. But a U.S. casting agency is already seeking extras for the film, with a call out for civilians, military personnel, scientists, fighters, survivors — and, notably, “enhanced beings.” On a Battleworld set in a medieval-style reality inspired by Doctor Doom’s Latveria, that last category could mean almost anything.

The confirmed cast is already stacked. Robert Downey Jr. returns as Doctor Doom, joined by Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Paul Bettany as The Vision, Letitia Wright as Black Panther, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, and Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter. The Fantastic Four lineup — Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach — is also confirmed, along with Sadie Sink in an undisclosed role.

The script is being written by Michael Waldron with additional work from Stephen McFeely, and the Russo Brothers — back in the Marvel fold for the first time since Avengers: Endgame in 2019 — are directing.

No official word yet on Hardy’s involvement, and Marvel isn’t commenting. But if Feige really is pushing to make this happen, the pieces couldn’t be more perfectly arranged. A symbiote fragment already sitting in the MCU. A Spider-Man film in the pipeline. The Russo Brothers back. And a story that, in the comics, was always about an alien costume in the first place.

The symbiote has been patient. It might not have to wait much longer.

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• Marvel released a new behind-the-scenes featurette highlighting practical stunt work in Spider-Man: Brand New Day
• Tom Holland says the film has “some of the best action” in any Spider-Man movie, with the most stunts shot in-camera
• Director Destin Daniel Cretton confirms the sequence — featuring a tank chase on Edinburgh streets dressed as New York — is the film’s opening action set piece
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens July 31 and stars Holland, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Sadie Sink, and Mark Ruffalo
• The practical effects push comes as Marvel faces ongoing criticism over its CGI quality

Tom Holland is back in the suit — and this time, he’s doing it the old-fashioned way. Marvel has dropped a new behind-the-scenes featurette for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it’s exactly the kind of footage that Marvel fans have been quietly desperate to see: real wires, real stunts, real chaos.

In the clip, Holland doesn’t hold back. “This is some of the best action that we’ve had in any of these movies,” he says. “And we shot the most stunts on the day in camera.” The footage backs him up — we see Spidey getting whipped around on rigging, thrown backwards into a truck, riding what appears to be an army tank through the streets, and cars exploding around him in sequences that look genuinely physical rather than stitched together in post.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton, who took over the franchise after Jon Watts departed, describes what we’re seeing as the film’s opening action sequence — so this is how Brand New Day announces itself right out of the gate. He also noted that hundreds of fans showed up on set to watch the stunts being filmed live, something he said meant a great deal to him and the entire crew.

A Fresh Start for Peter Parker

The practical emphasis makes sense given where the story picks up. Four years after the events of No Way Home, Peter Parker is living entirely alone — no Tony Stark tech, no Iron Spider suit, no one who even remembers who he is. He voluntarily erased himself from the lives of everyone he loves, and now he’s just a full-time Spider-Man in a city that doesn’t know his name. The official description promises that “the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence” as he faces one of the most powerful threats he’s ever encountered.

That stripped-down premise — which began with Peter literally sewing his own costume at a sewing machine in a crappy apartment at the end of No Way Home — makes the practical, grounded approach to the action feel like a deliberate creative statement. This isn’t the polished Avengers-era Spider-Man. This is a kid figuring it out.

Marvel also released a new poster alongside the featurette — a close-up of Holland’s face, the bottom half visible below the mask, Spider-Man’s suit filling most of the frame. Simple, striking, and a clean visual promise of what the film is going for.

Why This Matters Right Now

The timing of this featurette is pointed. Marvel’s visual effects have taken a beating from fans and critics for years, with particularly rough shots from Black Widow, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder becoming something of a running internet joke. That criticism has only deepened alongside reporting on how Marvel treats its VFX vendors — including recent fan reactions to CGI in The Punisher: One Last Kill that went viral for all the wrong reasons.

Against that backdrop, a featurette that essentially says “we built this for real” isn’t just a marketing beat — it’s a message. The footage of the tank rolling down an Edinburgh street (dressed to look like New York) with Holland on top of it is exactly the kind of image that travels. Fans on set, watching it happen in person, only adds to that.

The film’s cast is stacked: Zendaya returns as MJ, Jacob Batalon is back as Ned, Jon Bernthal reprises Frank Castle/The Punisher (whose One Last Kill special sets up some complicated dynamics heading into this film), Michael Mando is on board as Scorpion, Tramell Tillman plays Department of Damage Control boss Bill Metzger, and Mark Ruffalo appears as Bruce Banner — with strong hints he’ll also show up green.

Then there’s Sadie Sink, whose role remains officially undisclosed — though fans have been obsessively cross-referencing every behind-the-scenes detail, including a yellow jacket she was spotted wearing on set, trying to crack it. So far, Marvel’s keeping that one close.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31.

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• Alan Cumming called the X2 set environment “very, very wrong and very just unacceptable” in a new Deadline interview
• His comments are widely understood to reference director Bryan Singer, who has faced numerous misconduct allegations
• Cumming revealed Avengers: Doomsday has secret, unannounced characters — disguised under fake names in the script
• He confirmed he’s not in Doomsday very much, but had “a really lovely time” and still has additional scenes to shoot
• Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, 2026, directed by the Russo brothers

Alan Cumming has some unfinished business with Nightcrawler — and some long-overdue things to say about what it cost him to play the character the first time around.

In a candid new interview with Deadline, the actor opened up about his experience on the 2003 set of X2, describing conditions that left a mark on him and his castmates that they’ve been talking about, quietly, for more than two decades. “There were things that happened on the [X2] set that were just shocking to me,” Cumming said. “The working environment was very, very wrong and very just unacceptable. And we all have talked about it in various ways over the years.”

Cumming didn’t name director Bryan Singer by name, but the context makes it hard to misread. During X2’s production, cast members reportedly threatened a walkout over Singer’s behavior on set. Singer has faced multiple, well-documented allegations of misconduct throughout his career and has consistently denied wrongdoing. Cumming himself had previously spoken about the “hellish” makeup process — hours in the chair to become the blue-skinned, teleporting mutant — but his latest comments make clear that the makeup chair was only part of why he turned down X-Men: The Last Stand.

A Trauma Bond That Lasted 20 Years

What did come out of that difficult production, unexpectedly, was a group of people who genuinely love each other. Cumming told People last month that the shared ordeal forged bonds that have held strong ever since. “It’s one of those films where I think we all were so traumatized we were bonded in trauma, so we stayed in touch,” he said. He’s remained close with Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Patrick Stewart, and James Marsden — all of whom, notably, are returning alongside him in Avengers: Doomsday.

That reunion, it turns out, has been genuinely healing. “Going back to it after all these years was great because I really liked the character,” Cumming told Deadline. “To go back and play him now and also this film is like superhero soup. There’s so many of them in it. I just can’t keep up.”

He also had warm words for the Russo brothers, who are directing the film after their celebrated MCU run with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame. “I really liked the brothers who directed it, and everyone was so nice.” Principal photography wrapped in September 2025, but Cumming confirmed he still has an additional shoot coming — so Nightcrawler’s role, small as it may be, isn’t entirely locked in yet.

Secret Characters, Fake Names, and Superhero Soup

Here’s where things get interesting for Marvel fans: Cumming let slip that the cast list we know isn’t the whole story. The scripts, he said, were deliberately obscured to keep certain returns under wraps. “Sometimes there were secret names in it because they didn’t want to let out that this certain character was coming back, so they called them somebody else in the script. It was so confusing.”

Given the swirling rumors — Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man among the most frequently cited — Cumming’s confirmation that there are surprises even the scoopers haven’t cracked will keep fans busy until a trailer finally drops. The latest word suggests one could arrive as soon as late May or mid-June.

The confirmed cast alone is already staggering: Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, James Marsden as Cyclops, Channing Tatum as Gambit, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Florence Pugh as Yelena, and many more.

As for how much screen time Cumming actually gets amid all of that? He was refreshingly honest. “I’m not in it very much, but I really had fun and it was a really lovely thing to go back to.” He paused on that for a moment, then added something that’s hard not to smile at: “It’s kind of great being a superhero at 60. It’s not so bad.”

Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, 2026.

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