Why isn’t Nicolas Cage in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse?’

Even as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse enjoys its status as one of this year’s highest-grossing and most critically acclaimed films, more and more people are continuing to discover it for the first time this year thanks to its recent digital debut. However, that has left many wondering: where is Nicolas Cage?

While the Face/Off actor was a fan favorite as Spider-Noir in 2018’s groundbreaking Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, he was nowhere to be seen in the sequel (for the most part). It turns out, Cage addressed this very issue earlier this year, saying he simply never got the call from Sony to reprise the character. As he explained to ScreenRant when asked if Spider-Noir would return for Across the Spider-Verse:

“You’d have to ask Sony. I don’t know what’s going on with that. No one’s spoken to me about that. Ask them. I don’t know. I really don’t. I wish they would. I love Spider-Man Noir, too. I think that’s a great character. Spider-Man’s the coolest superhero. And then you combine that with Cagney and Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, come on, it’s a great character.”

Is Nicolas Cage done with Spider-Noir for good?

If you’ve seen Across the Spider-Verse, you will know that Spider-Noir is not the only web-head variant from the first film that is largely absent in the sequel. John Mulaney’s Spider-Ham and Kimiko Glen’s Peni Parker are also sorely missing. However, this seems like an intentional storytelling choice rather than a straight-up snub.

You see, Across the Spider-Verse had to introduce a ton of new characters, including many other Spider-Man variants, such as Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk, Karan Soni’s Pavitr Prabhakar, Issa Rae’s Jessica Drew, Oscar Isaac‘s Miguel O’Hara, and the villain of the film, Jason Schwartzman’s Spot. In order to not overwhelm audiences, we could totally see the filmmakers intentionally leaving out some of the Spider-variants from the first movie so the new characters could shine.

However, does that mean we will never see Cage’s Spider-Noir again? We have reason to believe there is hope since the monochromatic hero and the rest of the classic team members from the first film, such as Spider-Ham and Peni Parker, do show up for a brief cameo at the end of Across the Spider-Verse. This may indicate they will all be more integral for the threequel, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.