Prime Video is moving toward a new live-action series set in Sony Pictures’ Universe of Marvel Characters. The project draws from the second Clone Saga comic arc and centers on Spider-Man clones Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker.
Deadline reports the streamer is “closing in on an order” for the Kelvin Yu-written series. Yu previously created American Born Chinese, and the project remains in late development with few official details released.
The new show is positioned to follow Spider-Noir, which Prime Video canceled after a single season earlier this month. Nicolas Cage starred in that series as Ben Reilly, a role shift from the comics where Spider-Man Noir is Peter Parker.
What is Spider-Man’s Clone Saga about?
The Clone Saga first appeared as a 1975 story in The Amazing Spider-Man #149. In that issue, Peter Parker learns that the Jackal is his former biochemistry teacher, Professor Miles Warren, who blamed Spider-Man for the death of Gwen Stacy and mastered cloning in response.
Warren created a Gwen Stacy clone and then cloned Spider-Man himself. The two Spider-Men fought before joining forces, and the clone appeared to die. Marvel revived the Jackal and the presumed-dead clone in a 1994–1996 storyline. That later arc revealed that the Peter Parker who survived the original battle was the clone, while the original Peter had taken the name Ben Reilly and built a separate life.
A third figure, the assassin Kaine, was then identified as an earlier, flawed prototype clone. Kaine developed extra abilities along with genetic degeneration and instability. After the 1990s storyline, Kaine Parker became a recurring character. He was later cured of his defects and often crossed paths with Ben Reilly, who adopted the Scarlet Spider identity.
Sources note the comics will serve as inspiration rather than a rigid blueprint. Some accounts say the series will follow Ben and Kaine as they confront their clone origins and other copies, including a clone who becomes the villain Spidercide.Other accounts suggest the show may change those origins and give the pair new identities. In the books, one controversial twist briefly declared Ben Reilly the real Spider-Man and Peter Parker the clone before the swap was reversed.
Amy Pascal, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller, who oversee the Sony universe and executive produced Spider-Noir, are expected to executive produce this series with Yu. Details on tone, setting, and how closely the adaptation will track the comics have not been confirmed.
Like Spider-Noir, the project falls under the multi-title deal between Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television aimed at producing a slate of series from Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, most of them tied to the Spider-Man world. It is also expected to premiere first on MGM+ before arriving on Prime Video.
