IGN got the chance to catch up with Nicolas Cage on the red carpet for his upcoming sports comedy flick Madden, where he opened up about his thoughts on Spider-Noir’s cancellation.
Released on Prime Video earlier this year, Cage stars as Ben Reilly in this animated take on New York’s resident web-slinger. Available to watch in both black and white and color, the show received strong reviews on the outset, but officially got canned by the streamer in September after falling out of its top 10 shows — oddly, much to Cage’s relief.
In a statement to Deadline, Cage said, “For me, one season is perfect, having said what I wanted to say with this dangerous, innovative, pop-art Spider-Man. Onwards, upwards, inwards.”
He doubled down on this sentiment while chatting with IGN’s Jeffrey Vega in early November, who asked if the actor felt there was still more of Ben Reilly’s story left to tell.
“No,” Cage answered. “I meant it when I said what I said. It’s a perfect season. You never wanna get stuck repeating a character and wear out your welcome. Ben Riley is so idiosyncratic. I was doing something that was pretty high-risk, tightrope stuff — if you do that for season 2, season 3, you could really wear out your welcome.
“So when they didn’t pick it up, I was like, ‘Whew, thank you!’ Because now I’m doing True Detective, and that’s only one season. It’s better that way, you know? I liked it when you would see Rock Hudson and Macmillan ? and it’s one season. I didn’t wanna keep repeating it. I don’t like repeating myself. It’s perfect, and I love that character. I love that season, and it will always be there and always be fresh.”
Aside from not wanting to rehash his character’s story, Cage wouldn’t return to the Spider-Noir series anyway, as he famously parted ways with Amazon over its stance on AI. In a blistering statement, he revealed that he refused to sign a waiver to use artificial intelligence on the animated series and confirmed that he was unlikely to ever work with the company again.
“Amazon is a very AI-friendly company, to the tune of $50 billion invested in OpenAI. I’m not an AI-friendly actor,” Cage said. “I’m not part of their club. I didn’t sign the waiver to use AI on Spider-Noir. I’ll probably not work with that studio again, but that’s OK.”
Cage has been open about his distaste for AI, saying at the 2025 Saturn Awards that “Robots cannot reflect the human condition for us. That is a dead end if an actor lets one AI robot manipulate his or her performance even a little bit, an inch will eventually become a mile and all integrity, purity, and truth of art will be replaced by financial interests only. We can’t let that happen.”
Cage is currently gearing up for the November 18 release of Madden, wherein he portrays the titular John Madden – a performance that has already been a source of viral debate among fans.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
Jeffrey Vega is the Lead Social Host/Producer at IGN and is probably feeding his neopets right now. You can follow him on Twitter @jeffreyvega, Instagram, and IGN’s TikTok.
