Prime Video is nearing a series order for a live-action show based on Marvel’s Clone Saga, according to Deadline. The series adapts the second Clone Saga, the storyline that ran through Marvel’s Spider-Man books from 1994 to 1996, and centers on Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker, the two Spider-Man clones at the heart of that run. Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television declined to comment.
Kelvin Yu, who created American Born Chinese for Disney+, is writing the series. Amy Pascal, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are expected to executive produce alongside him. The three oversee Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters on the TV side and also produced Spider-Noir, which Prime Video canceled earlier this month after one season. The Clone Saga show would take Spider-Noir’s place under the multi-series deal between Amazon MGM Studios and Sony TV, and it would follow the same release path, debuting on MGM+ before streaming on Prime Video.
Plot details are thin. Deadline reports there is talk that the show could rework how Ben and Kaine became clones and give them new identities. No casting has been announced.
The Ben Reilly Name Is Already in Use
Spider-Noir got there first. Nicolas Cage played Ben Reilly in that series, even though Spider-Man Noir is Peter Parker in the comics. Deadline attributes the switch to rights carveouts. Sony has not said whether the new show’s Ben has any connection to Cage’s character.
Where Ben and Kaine Come From
Ben Reilly traces back to the original 1970s Clone Saga, when the Jackal, Miles Warren, cloned Peter Parker. Amazing Spider-Man #149 left the clone apparently dead. Marvel brought him back in 1994, revealing he had spent five years living as Ben Reilly, a name built from Uncle Ben’s first name and Aunt May’s maiden name. He returned to New York as the Scarlet Spider, wearing a blue sleeveless hoodie over a red and blue spider suit.
Kaine first appeared in Web of Spider-Man #119 and turned out to be the Jackal’s first attempt at cloning Peter, one that went wrong. His body was breaking down at the cellular level, and he wore a dark full-body suit to keep himself alive. During the saga he killed Doctor Octopus, framed Peter for his own murders and spent most of the story hounding Ben out of a twisted jealousy.
The saga’s most infamous turn came when tests showed Ben was the original and Peter was the clone, and Ben took over as Spider-Man. Marvel reversed it in Spider-Man #75, where Norman Osborn was revealed to have faked the results. Ben died and dissolved, which settled that he had been the clone all along. The story was planned to wrap in under a year, but strong sales kept it going for more than two, running through every Spider-Man title Marvel published at the time.
What the Clones Have Done Since
Both characters outlived the ’90s. Kaine got his own Scarlet Spider ongoing series in 2012, written by Chris Yost, which moved him toward antihero territory. Ben came back in 2016’s The Clone Conspiracy and headlined Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider by Peter David for 25 issues through 2018. The 2025 miniseries Chasm: Curse of Kaine flipped the pair around, with Kaine playing hero as the Scarlet Spider and Ben operating as the villain Chasm. Which of these versions Yu draws from has not been revealed.
Sources: Deadline
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