Nicolas Cage is done playing nice with Amazon. The Oscar winner used his New York Comic Con spotlight panel to torch the studio behind Spider-Noir, revealing he refused to sign an AI waiver for the series — and that his relationship with Amazon is likely over for good.
Speaking Saturday during a "Spotlight" panel on the Empire Stage at New York Comic Con (via Variety), Cage drew a hard line on artificial intelligence. "I am not an AI-friendly actor," he said. "I didn't sign the waiver to let them use AI on Spider-Noir."
Cage pointed to Amazon's enormous AI investments — reportedly $50 billion into OpenAI — as fundamentally incompatible with his position, describing himself as outside "their club." Asked about his future with the studio, he was blunt: he's probably not going to work with Amazon again, but he's at peace with that.
Rather than chase studio work, Cage said he wants to align himself with the next generation of filmmakers. He praised Gen Z directors who are building careers from scratch through YouTube culture and hands-on, DIY methods, name-checking Backrooms director Kane Parsons — who parlayed internet horror fame into a Hollywood directing career — as exactly the kind of creator he wants to work with next. For Cage, the question of how a film performer survives "in a very different world that is growing exponentially" comes down to relevance, and he believes the answer lies with young creators doing it all by hand rather than with studios leaning on automation.
The Saturday morning panel spanned Cage's famously eclectic career, from critically acclaimed dramas to action blockbusters and cult indies, but the AI discussion dominated. Cage framed the technology as an existential threat to acting itself, arguing that performers who cede even an inch of their craft to machines risk watching the integrity of the art form get replaced by financial interests.
The remarks land just weeks after Amazon canceled Spider-Noir following its single season, a decision that stunned the industry given the show's performance. The noir superhero series earned 11 Emmy nominations — the most of any Prime Video program this year — and amassed 2.6 billion minutes viewed in its first six weeks. Cage's panel also touched on his career-spanning filmography and his interest in a potential role in True Detective season five, which he discussed with the Comic-Con crowd.
Cage has been among Hollywood's most outspoken critics of AI in entertainment, and his refusal to sign the waiver puts him at odds with one of the industry's biggest spenders on the technology. With Spider-Noir now in the rearview, the actor appears ready to bet his future on young, independent-minded directors instead.
