• 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.

• Nicolas Cage reprises his Spider-Verse role in Spider-Noir, now a live-action series
• The show is set in a stylized 1933 New York and plays like a Humphrey Bogart detective story
• There are no multiverse references or connections to Miles Morales — this is a standalone noir
• Reviews are mixed, praising Cage’s commitment but questioning the show’s tonal consistency
• Spider-Noir streams on Amazon’s MGM+ with a PG-13 edge

Nicolas Cage in a fedora, fighting crime in 1930s New York, as a version of Spider-Man who operates more like Philip Marlowe than Peter Parker. On paper, Spider-Noir is one of the most interesting swings anyone’s taken with the Spider-Man IP in years. In execution, it’s complicated.

Cage reprises the role he voiced in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but this isn’t the same character — not exactly. The show has no references to Miles, Gwen, or any multiverse. There’s no web-slinging across dimensions. Instead, it’s a standalone noir thriller set in a stylized 1933 New York where Cage’s Spider, as he’s called here, wears a black mask under his hat and navigates a Depression-era world of corruption, violence, and moral ambiguity.

The PG-13 rating gives it more edge than the animated version — stronger language, more overt violence — but the show leans into atmosphere over action. It wants to be a detective story first and a superhero show second.

The Bogart of It All

The Humphrey Bogart comparisons are intentional and everywhere. Cage plays the role with the kind of laconic cool that suggests he’s studied The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep with the same care he once brought to Leaving Las Vegas. When the show trusts that energy — the slow burn, the shadows, the cynicism — it works.

When it doesn’t trust it, things get messier. Critics have noted that the tone can be inconsistent, bouncing between genuine noir atmosphere and the broader demands of a superhero property. The 1933 setting occasionally feels more like a costume than a commitment, with cultural references that don’t always track to the era.

But Cage is fully in it. He always is. And for viewers who’ve been waiting for Sony’s Spider-Man universe to try something genuinely different instead of another villain origin story, Spider-Noir at least has the courage of its weird, fedora-wearing convictions.

The series streams on Amazon’s MGM+.

The post Spider-Noir Turns Spider-Man Into a 1930s Detective Story 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.

• Spider-Noir premieres on Prime Video on May 27, with Nicolas Cage starring as Ben Reilly — not Peter Parker
• The show will be available in both black-and-white and color versions, a decision Cage himself helped champion
• Cage referenced Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, and even Bugs Bunny daily on set to shape his performance
• Co-showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot drew from noir classics like Casablanca, Chinatown, and L.A. Confidential
• Producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller say they’re open to more seasons — the door is wide open

Nicolas Cage has been circling superhero mythology for decades — there was that legendary unmade Superman project, then his voice work in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But nothing he’s done in the genre looks quite like Spider-Noir, the Prime Video series that drops May 27 and asks a question no one in the Spider-Verse has dared to ask before: What if we just made a Bogart movie?

“We’re really trying to make an old Bogart movie,” co-showrunner Oren Uziel said. “It’s just that Bogart happens to be Spider-Man.”

That single idea — deceptively simple, wildly ambitious — drove every creative decision the team made, from the casting to the color palette to the choice to set the whole thing in 1930s Depression-era New York. Uziel, who came in already a fan of both noir and Spider-Man, said he and Cage were aligned from the very beginning on what this show needed to be. “We didn’t want to make a version of Spider-Man that anyone had seen before,” he said. “Nic was never going to do that.”

Why Ben Reilly — and Not Peter Parker

The most immediate signal that this isn’t your standard Spider-Man story? The name on the door. Cage plays Ben Reilly, a seasoned, down-on-his-luck private investigator who is forced back into his life as the city’s one and only superhero following a deeply personal tragedy. Peter Parker doesn’t exist in this universe — at least not yet, with Uziel leaving the door deliberately open for future seasons.

The reasoning was straightforward. “Peter Parker is so synonymous to me with a young character and a coming-of-age story,” Uziel explained. That’s not the story they were telling. This Spider-Man is older, wearier, and has already been through the worst of it. “He is older, he is wiser, he is maybe a little less excited to do it all,” added co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot, who previously served as showrunner on Marvel’s The Punisher.

Lamorne Morris, who plays journalist and Reilly confidant Robbie Robertson, put it in terms that cut right to the heart of what Cage was building. “His whole thing is he is a spider trying to learn how to be a human. Whereas I think other characters are the reverse — they are humans playing the spider — and I think it’s a completely unique take on it.”

Cage pulled from an eclectic set of references to get there. Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Edward G. Robinson — and, yes, Bugs Bunny. “Nic is unlike any other actor you’ve ever seen,” Morris said. “He pulled from Bugs Bunny to play this character.”

Every Day on Set, a New Bogart Scene

Uziel’s own noir touchstones going into the show were considerable — The Third Man, Double Indemnity, The Thin Man, His Girl Friday, Miller’s Crossing, Casablanca, L.A. Confidential. But Cage arrived on set each day with his own specific homework done. “Every single day he’d come to set with a different reference: ‘This is Bogart from The Big Sleep, this is going to be Peter Lorre. This is going to be Edward G. Robinson,'” Uziel recalled.

That level of commitment had a gravitational pull on the rest of the cast. Brendan Gleeson, who plays lead antagonist and crime boss Silvermane, described working opposite Cage as an experience in creative generosity. “It was just a joy to be working with Nic because you toss it across and it comes back with twice a spin on it.”

Jack Huston, who plays Flint Marko — better known as Sandman — said the show’s characters take on a larger symbolic weight in the process. The heroes and villains “become a bit of their own metaphor and that’s a beautiful thing.” Lucas Shaw described the result as a new kind of “badass adult” version of Spider-Man, something the franchise simply hasn’t produced before.

For producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller — the creative architects of the Spider-Verse film universe — the tonal blend was always the point. “It should be funny. Nic is a funny person. Spider-Man was always quippy. And some of our favorite noirs are really funny, but also emotional,” Miller said. “As the show gets weirder, you’re letting Nic be Nic.”

The Black-and-White Decision — and the Fight to Keep It

Shooting in black and white in 2026 is not a small ask. Cage knew that, and he knew the studio was nervous about it. So he came up with a solution himself.

“I could tell that some of the folks in the studio were nervous,” Cage said at Wednesday’s New York premiere, where he walked the carpet alongside Morris, Huston, Gleeson, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Lukas Haas, and Abraham Popoola. “So I said, ‘You don’t only have to shoot it in black and white; you can also get teenagers, who might be watching, by shooting in color with almost a colorized feel. And maybe that’ll make them interested in watching it in black and white.'”

The creative team was fully on board. Miller said from the beginning they were committed to shooting “with intention for black and white” — not converting it as an afterthought. That single decision shaped everything: performances, music, cinematography. Executive producer Dan Shear clarified that when Amazon came to the production asking for a color version to accompany the black-and-white release, the team accepted it as a creative challenge rather than a compromise. “We accepted the challenge, worked out our plan for it and it was really seen as an efficient, effective production,” Shear said.

For Cage, the color version isn’t a sellout — it’s a gateway. “My dream is that [young viewers] will see the black and white after they do the color, and they’re going to want to look at the old movies, all that great wealth of American cinema that we have,” he said. “I also say, it doesn’t matter if a 13-year-old doesn’t know who Humphrey Bogart is. It works.”

The show was also retitled from simply Noir to Spider-Noir ahead of release. Shear explained the thinking: “It’s really a merging of two genres. We’re telling a noir, but we’re also telling a Spider-Verse show and the title represents the intersection of those genres, which kind of creates a third new thing that we hadn’t seen before.”

Built to Run for Seasons

The eight-episode first season expands on the Spider-Man Noir character who first appeared in animated form in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2018 — though the creative team is clear this is its own, broader story. “They’re connected for sure. There’s inspiration being taken there,” Uziel said. “But when you’re making an eight-episode television series, you’re going to really expand it and broaden it. In live action, you get to see so much more of Nic’s performance and you can really fully realize New York in the ’30s.”

Lightfoot was equally firm that despite the period setting, the show needed to feel alive right now. “We wanted to be truthful to the period, but we never wanted it to feel like a pastiche. We wanted it to be its own thing, and if you’re writing a show now, it’s hopefully going to speak to now.”

As for what comes next, Lord and Miller aren’t playing coy. “We are television producers. We’re not gonna say no,” Lord said. Miller added that he “would be happy to do more.”

And Uziel made the case for why this world could sustain as many stories as anyone wants to tell. “One of the magical things about any private detective story is, if you want another story, all it takes is another client to knock on that door, and then comes a new set of cases, a new set of problems and a new adventure to go on.”

Spider-Noir hits Prime Video on May 27 in both black-and-white and color.

The post Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Noir: ‘We Made a Bogart Movie Where Bogart Is Spider-Man’ appeared first on Cream.

• Paramount Pictures has set January 14, 2028 as the release date for the next Longlegs movie
• Nicolas Cage and writer-director Osgood Perkins are both returning for the follow-up
• Paramount describes it as set in the Longlegs universe — not a direct sequel
• Neon, which distributed the original, passed on the project due to budget size; Paramount stepped in
• The first film grossed $127.9M worldwide on a $10M budget, becoming a word-of-mouth horror hit

Nicolas Cage is going back to the dark side. Paramount Pictures has officially set January 14, 2028 as the release date for the next film in the Longlegs universe, confirming both Cage and filmmaker Osgood Perkins are returning to the nightmare they first built together in 2024.

The project is being positioned carefully — Paramount’s press release is clear that this is not a direct sequel but rather a new story set within the Longlegs universe. Plot details are being kept firmly under wraps, though that open-ended framing has fans already speculating. A prequel seems like the most logical direction, but the studio isn’t tipping its hand either way.

From Indie Sensation to Paramount Franchise

One of the more interesting behind-the-scenes moves here is the distributor shift. The original Longlegs was released by Neon in July 2024, and it became the indie distributor’s best domestic opening weekend ever — $22.4 million in its debut, legging out to $74.3 million domestically and nearly $128 million worldwide against a production budget of just $10 million. By any measure, that’s a phenomenon.

But when the follow-up started taking shape, Neon stepped aside. According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources indicated the sequel’s budget was simply beyond Neon’s usual range. Paramount — which has made horror a stated priority — moved in and acquired the rights. The studio knows this weekend: January MLK openings have been good to them, with Scream pulling $33.8 million in 2022 and Mean Girls $33.6 million in 2024. Their all-time record for that frame belongs to Cloverfield’s $46.1 million back in 2008.

Perkins will write and direct again, and the producing team largely reunites the original crew — Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Chris Ferguson, Dave Caplan, and Perkins himself are all back. Cage will both star and produce, continuing his creative investment in the project.

What Made the First One So Special

For those who need a refresher: the original Longlegs starred Maika Monroe as FBI Agent Lee Harker, a haunted investigator pulled into a series of ritualistic murder-suicides connected to a mysterious serial killer. Cage played the titular Longlegs — nearly unrecognizable beneath heavy prosthetics — in a performance that reminded everyone why he remains one of the most compelling and unpredictable actors working today. The cast also included Alicia Witt, Blair Underwood, and Kiernan Shipka.

What the film did with its marketing campaign became almost as talked-about as the movie itself. Neon kept Cage’s character deliberately hidden, teasing audiences with cryptic imagery and drip-fed content that had the internet obsessed before a single frame of footage was widely seen. Industry observers have since cited it as a model for how to build anticipation in the horror space.

The film elevated Perkins — who previously directed I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House — to genuine name-brand horror director status almost overnight. That combination of a breakout filmmaker, a fully committed Cage, and a marketing campaign that genuinely unnerved people is a hard thing to replicate. Which is exactly why January 2028 will be worth watching closely.

The post Longlegs 2 Gets a 2028 Release Date With Nicolas Cage appeared first on Cream.