Prime Video is close to a deal with Sony for a live-action series based on the Spider-Man Clone Saga, Deadline reports. The news arrives just weeks after the streamer cancelled Spider-Noir, its Nicolas Cage series set in the same corner of Sony’s Spider-Man rights.
The project is not a straight comic adaptation. According to Deadline, the source comics may serve only as “source material and inspiration”, and the show could change the story in significant ways.
What the Spider-Man Clone Saga was
Marvel ran the Clone Saga across its Spider-Man comics in the mid-1990s. The storyline centred on a set of Peter Parker clones created by the villain The Jackal. Two of them became the most prominent.
The first, Ben Reilly, took on the Scarlet Spider identity. The second, Kaine, was a hostile clone who kept his own name as his alias. Years later, in the 2010s, Kaine also picked up the Scarlet Spider name.
The arc grew famous for its length and its tangle of duplicates. Other clones joined the cast, including one called Spidercide. The story ran far longer than Marvel first planned, and the Spider-Man Clone Saga is still shorthand for a comic arc that got out of hand.
Reports conflict on the show’s direction
Details on the premise of the show remain unclear for now. Some reports say the series would follow Ben and Kaine as they face off against other clones. Others say the show could rewrite both characters so that they are no longer Spider-Man clones at all.
That second option has a recent precedent. In the comics, the Spider-Noir hero is a version of Peter Parker. However, the Prime Video series renamed Cage’s character Ben Reilly to sidestep rights questions. A loose take on the Spider-Man Clone Saga would follow the same approach.
Sony and Disney‘s Marvel Studios share the Spider-Man film rights under a long-running arrangement. Meanwhile, Sony has pushed its own spin-offs built around side characters and alternate versions of the hero. Spider-Noir was part of that push on television.
Who is making the series
Kelvin Yu, creator of the Disney+ series American Born Chinese, is writing the project. Amy Pascal, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are expected to produce.
Pascal has produced Sony’s Spider-Man films for years. Lord and Miller, meanwhile, are the creative team behind the animated Spider-Verse films, which built their story around multiple versions of Spider-Man. They also worked as producers on Spider-Noir before its cancellation.
Neither Amazon nor Sony has officially confirmed the Spider-Man Clone Saga series yet. There is no casting, title or release window so far. For now, the deal itself is the only confirmed step, and it is still reported as close rather than final.