Interview: Discussing ‘Spider-Noir’ with Editors Jennifer Barbot and Eric Kissack

Spider-Noir is a very unique entry in the Marvel canon, not only blending the heightened aesthetics of comic book entertainment with Noir-inspired elements, but also more of a detective story and character study than a traditional superhero show.

According to editor Eric Kissack, ACE, who spoke to Awards Radar during a Zoom press day, approaching such a story felt a bit daunting, because “There was a lot of fear to overcome, because superhero TV shows and movies are known properties. We know people like these. However, [showrunner] Oren Uziel always wanted it to be 70% a noir detective show and 30% a superhero show.

I think that freaked people out, because many wondered, “Do people want to watch a noir detective show? Do they want to see it black-and-white?” I think there was more and more pressure to make it more superhero, but Oren really stuck to his guns and said that the things that make it unique and interesting are the parts where it’s set in the ‘30s, in black-and-white. And these are the things that people respond to and make it feel different, and not your run-of-the-mill superhero story.”

For editor Jennifer Barbot, ACE, it was important for the editing to focus on the character of Ben Reilly first and foremost, because “Oren was focused on telling an emotional story about Ben as an aging superhero, which was really interesting. How Nicolas Cage incorporated that into the physicality of his performance, and even into the things we did, in terms of editing and choosing takes where he looked less polished and less sleek as Spider-Man at many points. There were scenes where we wanted him to feel sleek, and scenes where we didn’t. There were lots of conversations about helping this be as unique as it was and standing on Ben’s journey, which was really interesting.”

There was so much to dive into in our conversation, which can be heard below, because the aesthetic proposition of Spider-Noir is so interesting that it warrants a major deep dive into the process of cutting the series.

Listen to the full conversation below:

[Some of the quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity]