Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’s Nicolas Cage Was Original Cast As The First Lead

Nicolas Cage did a pretty great job voicing the dark and mysterious Spider-Man Noir in Sony Picture's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The Ghost Rider and National Treasure star's voice fit perfectly well with the moody iteration of everyone's favorite wall-crawler – so much so that the actor was once considered as the "first official lead" of the animated movie.

Speaking in an interview with the print publication Official Movie Special (ComicBook.com), Into the Spider-Verse director Bob Persichetti decided to let out a few of the movie's production secrets. Not only did Persichetti want Cage as the "first official lead" of the film, but he had also secretly cast the actor two years before the release of Into the Spider-Verse.

"When looking at who we could approach to play there alternate dimension Spider characters, we thought about seminal actors that also might be comic book geeks. There were so many different casting meetings where a lot of options were put in front of us, but with Spider-Man Noir, we kept coming back to Nicolas Cage and wondering if he could or even would do it," Persichetti told the publication.

According to Persichetti, the actor did an excellent job during the auditions and once he played the lead of Into the Spider-Verse he never broke character, bringing a Humphrey Bogart energy to the room while he was playing the part.

Cage might have become a joke after playing terrible roles in terrible films like Ghost Rider, but the actor's always been an avid comic book fan, collecting comics and joining conventions. At one point, the actor almost even played the Son of Krypton in the never-made Superman Lives comic book movie by Tim Burton.

It isn't a surprise that he did well playing Spider-Man Noir.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is currently screening in cinemas.

Read: Spider-Verse Producer Phil Lord Will Include Japanese Spider-Man In The Sequel Under One Condition