Spider-Man Needs a TV Show. But Does He Need *This*?

Earlier this week, news broke that Prime Video greenlit a new Spider-Man show. Where the recently ended Spider-Noir focused on 1930s detective Ben Reilly, this new series will star Ben Reilly and Kaine, a pair of Peter Parker clones made popular during the ’90s “Clone Saga” arc. Their show will take inspiration from said saga, with both men learning of each other’s existence and grappling with that, plus any other clones that may menace them.

Sony has long tried to make the most of its relationship with Marvel by centering movies around the Spider-adjacent characters it owns. But after audiences gradually fell out of love with Tom Hardy’s Venom, saw some kind of vision with Madame Web, and rejected Morbius and Kraven the Hunter, it seemed Sony realized it needed to change tactics, hence teaming with Prime Video on Noir, and now this.

Individually, Reilly and Kaine have decently sized fanbases and are frequent enough players in the comics, and their being clones of Peter makes them distinctly messy in a way Miles Morales or Venom can’t be. Derided and divisive as it’s been, the Clone Saga is at a point where, like Knightfall for Batman or the X-Men’s Phoenix Saga, it could do with at least one (emphasis on “one”) adaptation just so Sony or Marvel could get it out of its system.

And if there’s a medium where this would probably be at its strongest, it’d be in television. Like most superheroes, Spider-Man’s often his best with weekly adventures that let him and his supporting cast breathe and viewers fully live in these respective renditions of New York. The films and games have their place in Spidey history, but the character isn’t really alive if he’s not on the small screen, and there’s a reason he tends not to go too long without a show. Given how few there are in live-action—Spider-Noir was the fourth and the first in nearly 50 years—this clone-centric one will get to feel novel.

The pieces are there, this all makes sense, and yet… it still feels weird this is happening. However interesting an idea this sounds, there’s no getting around how easily this comes off as another display of just how inconsistent Sony is at owning Spider-Man, repeatedly following up strong works with some boneheaded moves. Look at the Sinister Six, look at Knull, and look at unrealized projects for Spider-Gwen, Black Cat, and so on—when it comes to Spider-Man, the studio just can’t help but overreach. That’s not a death sentence for the clone show, but it does mean there’ll likely be something that potentially derails what’s otherwise making “Orphan Black, but with superheroes” its elevator pitch.

Sony clearly isn’t going to give up on doing Spider-adjacent projects, and the Reilly/Kaine show is maybe a more elegant way to get out of the hole its deal with Marvel has put it in. Whatever long-term designs there are for these two Spider-Men, the studio will still have to resist giving into its worst impulses and making sure audiences understand that it knows where it went wrong with the first salvo of projects. These days, the tolerance for repeating successes and mistakes is getting shorter and shorter, and goodwill isn’t something Sony can afford to continue eroding.

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