[This article contains spoilers from the season one finale of Spider-Noir.]
Lamorne Morris wants to dive back into the world of Spider-Noir.
That’s the main takeaway from the veteran actor as we settle in for a spoiler-filled chat about the first season of Prime Video’s acclaimed alternate-universe Spider-Man series, centered on Nicolas Cage’s grizzled private-eye who has (almost) left behind an ambiguous superhero past. Having broken out as part of the beloved New Girl ensemble, Morris more recently showcased his dramatic side in FX’s Fargo, going on to win an Emmy for his nuanced performance. As the dogged reporter Robbie Robertson in Spider-Noir, he got to bring both of those sides of his performing abilities to the table — and more. As he puts it, “I get a chance to do it all.”
The season settles into the dynamic between Cage’s Ben, Karen Rodriguez’s right-hand Janet, and Morris’s Robbie, who helps his friends out whenever he can from the front lines of reportage. In the finale, with Ben’s The Spider alter-ego on the verge of being exposed, Robbie steps in by donning the Spider suit on his behalf — allowing Morris, who grew up a massive Spider-Man fan, to fulfill a kind of childhood dream. Robbie also leaves the Daily Bugle to lead the Harlem Herald — setting up an enticing new chapter for a new iteration of a character who goes back nearly 60 years in the Marvel comics.
Morris is wide-eyed about the possibilities there, as word awaits on a potential season two. He gets into that and much more in our conversation.
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Starring in the Spider-Man universe — now that it’s been out there for a minute, do you notice the feedback is different from other projects?
It is wild. We’ve been doing a lot of press for it, so I haven’t had a chance to sit back and just tap into Instagram or X…but I’ve been hearing a lot of great stuff, which is all you can ask for when you’re working so hard on something. I’ve just been smiling about it. It’s kind of surreal. For the first time in a while, I had somebody scream out a name other than Winston at the airport. “Hey, Robbie!” It finally happened. (Laughs)
You just mentioned how hard you worked on this. Why did this feel like a different kind of undertaking to you versus past projects?
I can go through the list. New Girl is a blessing to my life, but it was very, very silly. It is a sitcom, exactly what it’s supposed to be. Then Fargo, I went completely left of that, which was a blessing because as an actor you want those opportunities and it worked. People seemed to dig that as well. I’m not mad at it. But with a show like this, what’s cool about it is I get a chance to do it all. The writing is so spectacular that it allows everyone to have fun. When you’re a kid, you dream of playing at work, and this is truly that. My character gets to be silly when he’s with the group; when he’s with Ben and Janet, he gets to be funny and charismatic and let loose. But when he’s on the case, you get to see a different side of Robbie and it’s very rare that in one project an actor gets a chance to show all that.
When you signed on, what did you know of Robbie’s arc for this first season?
Nothing. I remember them speaking to me a little bit about it. This was an offer I didn’t have to read for it. If I auditioned, it would’ve been different. Maybe there would’ve been some sort of context there. I knew who Robbie was already, because of the comics and some of the [Sam] Raimi films, but they did say dealer’s choice as far as building the character. They wanted to see what I thought of it. But when you don’t really know where the storyline is going — I don’t want to say you don’t want to be too cautious, but you also want to leave a lot to play with on set.
At one point, I had only been given the first four episodes, and Nick started asking me questions about the finale. He’s like, “When you get a chance to do this and you get a chance to do that,” and I said, “I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He was like, “I mean the finale,” and I said, “I haven’t read it yet.” Nick had been the only one who was given the whole series. Once Nick realized I didn’t have the whole series, he went to the producers and was like, “We need to get the rest of the cast every episode. What are we doing? Enough of the secrecy stuff, get them the episodes!” The rest is history.
Lamorne Morris in Spider-Noir.
Aaron Epstein/Prime © Amazon Content Services LLC
So you get to wear the Spider suit in the finale. When you finally got the script, how did you react?
And that’s what Nick was referring to — it blew my mind. I thought, “Wait, what is he talking about? Am I really about to put on the suit?” There was all this conversation about what happens when I get injected and all this stuff; a lot of stuff that was being thrown out there, the “what ifs” and these things.
I used to put up these fake posts on my Instagram with me dressed as Spider-Man, and I would say, “Cat’s out of the bag! Everybody’s looking at the new Spider-Man!” I would do that all the time, once or twice a year. I would post it for years, and so I guess in some small way I manifested it. But still, it sits with me. There’s something about it. “Damn, I got to do that.” My daughter’s seen it now. She’s not even six yet. You’ve got to cover her eyes for a lot of scenes, but she’s seen that. She’s seen the whole thing now and she’s like, “You’re the Spider.” And she knows the difference. She’s like, “It’s not Spider-Man, daddy, it’s the Spider.”
What was the fitting like?
I remember the wardrobe day, it was a big deal. They wanted these photos being sent back and forth to producers. I took photos on my phone and I hadn’t been able to show anybody, and I think now I’m going to start posting. This one was tricky because I’m not actually the Spider. I’m just playing him. I didn’t know how to feel. I felt cool doing it, and it almost felt like I was going out for Halloween as The Spider — which, I’m sure a lot of folks this Halloween will be Ben Reilly or The Spider. I knew it was a borrowed costume, and so it didn’t fully hit me like, “Oh my God, this is what I’m doing.” But it was just cool more than anything.
What was your relationship to Spider-Man coming into this?
As a kid, Spider-Man probably resonated more with me than any other character. Spider-Man was one of the ones that made you feel it was possible. He was our age. He was young. I look at Spider-Man like I look at Steph Curry in basketball. He came into the league, he was the smaller of the group, but was doing things that everybody could potentially do. Spider-Man is just a young boy. He was trying to figure his way out. What I loved the most about Spider-Man was that it was this secret. Every superhero has this secret identity that you always want people to know who he is: They’re about to pull the mask off and they don’t do it. I love that the most about Spider-Man because he goes to high school and no one knows. They pick on him and it’s like, “Damn, if they only knew that I just literally saved their lives from a world-ending situation.”
The interesting thing about this one is that we see a Spider-Man who’s at the end of his rope. He’s done. That’s why fans will resonate with it so much. We’re getting to see a different lens of what it’s like to be a hero all these years: You’re basically over it, but the city needs you.
Robbie also leaves the Daily Bugle at the end of the finale, which is really the culmination of his story this season. What did you make of that?
It’s the Great Depression, it’s the 1930s, everyone is going through it — and it’s good to have those victories at the end. We see what Robbie’s pushing for throughout the series. We see how he’s struggling, eating these ketchup sandwiches, and he’s just living this life, the “fake it ‘til you make it” life, and he finally gets the opportunity that he deserves. He’s not just a writer, he’s not just a journalist. He’s the one who’s arming the citizens with the ability to free themselves. That’s what journalists do, especially during those days where the only line of communication you had was through the paper or the radio. He’s a good, decent human being who truly is a superhero in his own right, just only has those human abilities. But more than anything, I’m just happy he didn’t get killed. (Laughs)
I was worried.
So hopefully we get a second season. I’m just excited about that. One of the things that excited me most about this journey is the camaraderie amongst friends, the relationship between himself, Janet and Ben. You’ve got the group of people that’s around that hero that either help ground the hero or inform the hero, and in some ways keep that hero safe. They survived and they’re going on to the next chapter, whatever that next chapter may be. I guess we’ll leave it up to you, the people, that we need another season.
Do you have any particular hopes for Robbie, should a season two come to pass?
Oh, absolutely. I have some thoughts. I don’t know if I should reveal those thoughts.
Well, reveal what you can.
I know. I’ll just say… World War II maybe. Who are we fighting? (Laughs) It would be really cool just to see what kind of hijinks you could get into in such a serious situation. Nothing has been said to me yet, but I have my thoughts and my ideas, and I’m wondering… damn it, I want to tell you, but I don’t know if that’s okay. (Pause) If you’ve seen the show, you’ve seen all these episodes, there are some keys — there are some jewels that we drop on you in that finale episode. I put that mask on, but that’s not the only thing that happens to me. I’ll just tell you it involves Megawatt (played by Andrew Caldwell). That’s all I’ll tell you.
We can let readers go with that.
Something else happens to Robbie in that moment, and it would be really cool to explore. You never know what’s going to happen. You never know what they’ll have in store. First of all, we need approval for a second season. Then we could talk about what it’s going to look like.
We can come up with this together as fans. The cool thing about a comic book fandom, the group behind all of that, is that they can influence culture in a way. So if fans want something bad enough, you make it happen, and that’s how it works.
Did you watch the show through as when it went on Prime?
First, I saw it unedited. ADR lines were not corrected yet, but we were about to start press and no one had seen anything. So they were like, “Well, here’s what we’ve got. We could show you a rough cut.” But then when it came out, I rewatched it, my mind was blown. When everything’s put together, it’s like you’re a kid watching something for the first time. There are scenes that I’m in, like, “I did that.” Watching it as a fan. The entire creative team behind it did such a great job of putting their finishing touches on everything and making it so dynamic, both in black and white and in color. They give you a different feel. It gives a different texture to your soul when you’re watching it. I’m glad they did both versions.
I was going to ask if you alternated between the two versions as you watched.
The first time I did it, I literally went with one episode of black and white, one episode of color, one episode of black and white, one episode color. Then I watched the whole thing in black and white, and I watched the whole thing in color again.
Wow.
I’ve seen it a lot. I’ve seen it. (Laughs)
To your point of feeling like a kid watching it, even just getting to play in that period-setting sandbox was probably very new for you, right?
You truly get a chance to transport. When you get a character that’s modern or current day, the wardrobe doesn’t truly transport you as much as it could in that time period. It helps you inform your character. Just to see how he gets ready in the morning. My mom is obsessed with black and white films…. And I’m like, “Mom, I don’t control these things.” She keeps trying to get me to do one. Now, this was my opportunity to fully immerse myself in this for my mother, not just the way I look, but the way I walked, the way my character spoke. I wanted to really feel like she was watching a noir. I wanted her to feel like she was watching an old film from back in the day — and she did, according to her. It gave her that feeling. More than anything, that’s what I’m most proud of. She had an opportunity to look at that and be immersed into it and go, “Oh, that’s my son on there. It’s not Humphrey Bogart, but that’s my son.”
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Spider-Noir is now streaming on Prime Video.
