Nicolas Cage Names The Coolest Superhero And He’s Absolutely Right
Nicolas Cage says that Spider-Man is the coolest superhero.
Nicolas Cage has never been your average Hollywood actor. As someone who is both revered and criticized for taking on what seems like pretty much any role offered to him (from the Oscar-winning role of a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas to playing a somehow even more eccentric version of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and everything else in between), the Bringing out the Dead actor has portrayed a wide collection of iconic characters on film. Having played such a diverse assemblage of personalities on screen means that Cage knows a thing or two about what makes great characters, which means he knows what he’s talking about when he says that Spider-Man is the coolest superhero there is.
Speaking with ComicBook.com at the Renfield premiere, Nicolas Cage discussed what it was like to play the newest version of the iconic vampire, Dracula, and also discussed his plans for returning to Sony’s Spider-Verse as Spider-Man Noir. Unfortunately for fans who loved Cage’s voice acting for Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony has not asked Cage to return for the upcoming sequel, but that doesn’t mean that Cage is opposed to returning to the character at another point in the future.
“I think it’s a wonderful character,” Nicolas Cage said, referring to the surly black-and-white-drawn Spidey detective and describing how voicing the character allowed Cage to channel some of his favorite movie stars from the golden age of Hollywood. He went on to say that Spider-Man himself is the “coolest superhero” and that Spider-Man Noir combines the already very cool wall-crawler with some of Nic Cage’s real-life heroes: classic Hollywood actors Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson.
While it’s sad news to hear that Nicolas Cage hasn’t yet been asked to return for future Spider-Verse movies (Spider-Man Noir was one of the best parts of Into the Spider-Verse), we do agree that Spider-Man is indeed the coolest superhero.
Spider-Man Noir was not Nicolas Cage’s first foray into the superhero genre (again, the man has done pretty much everything at this point). Before voicing the alternative version of Spidey, Cage played the Marvel anti-hero Ghost Rider in the 2007 film of the same name. While Ghost Rider was critically panned, the film did well enough to greenlight a sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, in 2011, which was a commercial success but hated even more by critics.
Additionally, Nicolas Cage also played Big Daddy in the vigilante superhero movie, Kick-Ass (2010). Kick-Ass was also a commercial success and was deemed a much more watchable flick by critics, earning average reviews overall. Neither of Cage’s previous excursions in the superhero genre did as well as 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which was a major box office success (earning $384.3 million on a budget of $90 million) and earned an Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
Although Nicolas Cage won’t be playing Spider-Man Noir again in Across the Spider-Verse, it doesn’t mean that we won’t hear his voice in a future Spider-Verse film, as Cage says that he is down to reprise the role if Sony asks him to. For now, audiences will have to settle by getting their Nic Cage fix in the upcoming Renfield movie, which looks like a hilariously bizarre modern take on the classic vampire and his faithful servant. Renfield hits theaters on April 14.
