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I’m tempted to refer to Spider-Noir as the most unexpected Spider-Man spinoff, but given the franchise h includes live-action takes on Morbius and Madame Web, I’m not so sure it qualifies. Spider-Man Noir began as an alternate universe lark in the comics before graduating to a supporting role in the greatest Spider-movie of all, the animated Into the Spider-Verse, where he was voiced by Nicholas Cage. The actor reprises his role in the new live-action Prime Video series, to deliriously entertaining (if surprisingly serious) results.
Frankly, if we’re going to continue to be inundated with Marvel content, more weird shit like this is fine by me, but I’m not too sure there are many other shows that completely align with “Nicholas Cage plays Spider-Man, but in the 1940s.” Therefore, when it comes to recommending streamalikes, I’m offering up these 10 other franchise reboots and reimaginings that take the weirder path, offering off-the-wall versions of beloved characters and concepts.
Perry Mason (2020 – 2022)
With Widow’s Bay signaling a full Matthew Rhys renaissance, it’s worth going back to this addictive odd duck of a show that places the Perry Mason of print, film, and television into a dark and gritty Depression-era prequel (I’m not familiar with the Erle Stanley Gardner source novels, but gather they don’t go nearly as hard as this show). Rhys is fabulous as the brilliant but hard-living defense lawyer, who is going through a divorce while still facing trauma from the Great War. He’s hired to investigate the case of a kidnapped and mutilated child, one which ends up having ties to crooked cops, local business leaders, and politicians in 1932 LA. Juliet Rylance co-stars as no-nonsense legal secretary Della Street, with Tatiana Maslany as a creepy evangelist. Stream Perry Mason on HBO Max.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018 – 2020)
Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) is an old-school witch living in a household that’s not at all unlike the Addams family: two witchy aunts (played by Miranda Otto and Lucy Davis) alongside her warlock cousin (Chance Perdomo) and her loyal familiar, Salem the cat, all of them living their supernatural lives just out of view of the local normies. Cannibalism, human sacrifice, and blood rituals abound, so while there’s a Wednesday-esque sense of humor here, it goes quite a bit harder than the ’90s show or the old-school Archie comics. Stream Sabrina on Netflix.
Titans (2018 – 2023)
This venerable DC franchise started out as the kid-oriented Teen Titans comics of the 1960s and evolved into a more mature concept by the 1980s, but it is best known via the long-running (nine seasons over 16 years, and counting) Teen Titans Go! animated series, aimed at younger teens. This reimagining takes the concept—former sidekick Robin leads a team of young heroes—ages up the characters, and adds sex, extra violence, and endless drama as the (reluctant) team battles demons, assassins, and daddy issues (Batman should not be allowed near children). Stream Titans on HBO Max.
Fate: The Winx Saga (2021 – 2022)
An update to the Winx Club Nickelodeon animated series, this show follows five fairies attending a prestigious boarding school for magical types. Not entirely unlike Percy Jackson, our lead fire fairy Bloom soon discovers that her parentage is more alien (literally) than she’d ever guessed. After a slow start, the show builds into an impressive coming-of-age story, and a rare fantasy series genuinely geared to its teenage target audience. It’s not exactly The Dark Knight, but it tones down the color scheme of the original cartoons and introduces a whole lot of fairy-centric teen drama. It was cancelled after two seasons, but if you find yourself hooked, there are graphic novels that continue the story. Stream Fate: The Winx Saga on Netflix.
Watchmen (2019)
A standalone sequel to the groundbreaking Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins graphic novel from the ’80s, this series plays in the sandbox of that book while moving the story forward. In an alternate Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a world where super-powered vigilantes exist and have been outlawed, the series starts, dramatically, with a depiction of the real-life massacre and destruction of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street by white residents in 1921. Flashing forward from there, Regina King plays Angela Abar, a modern cop whose grandparents were killed during the attack, an event that echoes throughout the series as the plot proper focuses on the fallout from the climactic events of the original comic and the conspiracies that grew out of it. Stream Watchmen on HBO Max.
Constantine (2014)
The Keanu Reeves movie (also adapted from the Hellblazer comics) is fine, but not wildly faithful to the source material. This network series, on the other hand, cast an actual British person to play the famously British anti-hero, so that’s a start. It’s a lateral move in terms of its darkness, but a different take in most other ways. Matt Ryan brings just the right amount of world-weary cynicism and wry humor to the role of the exorcist and occult detective, who is trying to stop supernatural threats in order to make up for some dark deeds in his own past. Though the series was relatively short-lived, Matt Ryan’s portrayal lasted for nearly a decade—through animated movies, various DC TV projects, and a regular role on Legends of Tomorrow. Buy Constantine from Prime Video and Apple TV.
What do you think so far?
The Irregulars (2021)
What sounded like a desperately unnecessary Sherlock Holmes pastiche involving Arthur Conan Doyle’s lovable scamps the Baker Street Irregulars (led here by Bad Sisters‘ Thaddea Graham) layered an unexpected exploration of grief into the dark supernatural mystery at its core. Here, Watson (Royce Pierreson) hires the damaged but resourceful urchins to aid in cases involving occult activity, as well as to help track down an aging Sherlock. Holmes angle aside, the show works as a darker, Victorian-era Stranger Things, one that actually acknowledges the ways in which being unhoused children in 19th century London might kinda suck. Stream The Irregulars on Netflix.
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010 – 2013)
While perhaps not the grittiest reboot, this show goes a bit more mature in revisiting the early days of the Scooby gang, building a serialized narrative across its 52 episodes (it’s my favorite iteration of the long-running franchise). Mystery Incorporated places the gang in Crystal Cove, the “Most Hauntedest Place on Earth,” and at odds with the local authorities—the town’t history of disappearances and weird happenings forms the basis of its tourist industry, and, thus, debunking are not welcome. Dark secrets linked to the town’s prehistory form the spine of the series. Stream Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated on Netflix.
Tom Swift (2022)
A spin-off of the similarly updated Nancy Drew series, this brief, but very fun show represents only the second time (following an ill-conceived 1980s TV special) that the character had come to the screen in any form. After 120 years and over 100 books, we finally got the young inventor in live action. He’s played by Tian Richards as a headstrong and brilliant young billionaire whose pride and shamelessness work both for and against him: he’s fully aware that he’s smart, rich, and hot, which is enough, until it isn’t: His equally talented father goes missing on an experimental space mission in the opening episode, forcing Tom to grow up more quickly than he would’ve liked. Stream Tom Swift on HBO Max.
Bel-Air (2022 – 2025)
Over four seasons, Bel-Air came into its own as a riff on one of the essential sitcoms of the 1990s, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but it’s jarring for fans of the beloved original to tune in to find a straight drama with the same premise. Jabari Banks plays Will Smith, a 16-year-old from West Philadelphia who winds up movin’ with his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air after a gun charge and a run-in with a local drug lord. Banks is charismatic and believable, bringing a ton of personality to a show that frequently veers down dark alleys. Stream Bel-Air on Peacock.
