Nicolas Cage says he probably will not work with Amazon MGM Studios again, and he's pointing to a very specific reason why: an artificial intelligence waiver he refused to sign for his Spider-Man noir series. The 62-year-old actor made the claim during a panel at New York Comic Con on Saturday, telling the crowd he was asked to sign off on AI use for Spider-Noir and declined.
Cage Draws a Line on AI Replicas
According to Los Angeles Times, Cage described Amazon as a very AI-friendly company and said the studio had invested $50 billion in OpenAI, though he did not sign the waiver that would have let AI be used on the show. His comments echo a stance he has held publicly for years — at the Saturn Awards in early 2025, Cage declared that “robots cannot reflect the human condition” and warned that letting AI manipulate a performance “even an inch will eventually become a mile,” according to IGN. He had also told The New Yorker in July 2024 that he was terrified of AI technology, per the same outlet.
Cage's refusal was not merely a personal preference — it reflects codified protections performers now carry into negotiations. Under SAG-AFTRA union terms ratified after the union's 118-day strike in 2023, studios must secure clear, conspicuous, project-specific informed consent before creating or using a performer's digital replica, and actors retain the right to refuse such waivers without losing their underlying role. California reinforced that right through Assembly Bill 2602, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2024 and effective the following January, which makes contract clauses unenforceable if they let companies use an actor's AI replica without explicit terms and legal or union representation.
A Hit Show, Then a Sudden Cancellation
Spider-Noir premiered in May 2026 as a 1930s-set crime-thriller take on Spider-Man, co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios, with Cage starring as the Spider in his first leading television role. The seed story reports the show earned 2.6 billion minutes watched in its first six weeks and collected 11 Emmy nominations with five wins. Despite that reception, Amazon announced in September 2026 that Spider-Noir would not return for a second season.
The show's 92% critic rating and 90% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes made the cancellation an outlier for a series that led Prime Video's Emmy slate, as noted by Slashdot. When the cancellation first came down, Cage issued a gracious public statement calling the single season “perfect” and saying he had accomplished what he wanted with the pop-art Spider-Man, according to TheWrap — only disclosing the AI waiver dispute weeks later at Comic Con.
Amazon's AI Spending Dwarfs Cage's Figure
While Cage pointed to Amazon's reported $50 billion investment in OpenAI as evidence of the company's AI-friendly posture, Amazon planned approximately $200 billion in 2026 capital expenditures on AI, cloud, and related infrastructure, a figure CEO Andy Jassy has defended during investor calls, Hoodline previously reported in its coverage of Jassy's AI spending plans. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cage's remarks, per the Los Angeles Times.
In July 2026, production company Particle6 announced it had cast a fully AI-generated digital actor named Tilly Norwood in a starring role in the film Misaligned, a move that sparked intense debate among Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA members, as Hoodline reported at the time. The announcement fueled debate over AI-generated digital replicas.
Pivoting Toward Human-Made Projects
At the Comic Con panel, Cage also said he wants to pivot toward working with Gen Z directors who build films from scratch and by hand, singling out YouTube creator Kane Parsons, who is directing A24's upcoming feature The Backrooms after achieving viral success online, per Slashdot's account of the panel. Cage says he plans to keep working in television and has announced he will join HBO's True Detective for its fifth season.
Hollywood unions including SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild secured broader protections against unauthorized technology use in their recent contracts, context the Los Angeles Times notes in its report on Cage's remarks. This is not Cage's only recent entanglement with a streaming giant: in July 2026, producer Simon Afram sued Netflix for $105 million in Los Angeles federal court after an unencrypted master hard drive containing Cage's unreleased World War II film Fortitude was stolen from Netflix offices, a case Hoodline covered in detail at the time. Cage, known for roles in National Treasure, Moonstruck and The Rock, was photographed for the Los Angeles Times by David Urbanke.
