Season 1 of Spider-Noir ended with Ben Reilly burned and Cat Hardy walking away, but the actress who played her isn’t ready to close the book on that romance just yet.
Cat Hardy is the femme fatale at the center of Spider-Noir‘s first season, and while she spends much of the show torn between her loyalty to Flint Marko and her growing connection with Nicolas Cage’s Ben Reilly, the season ends without any resolution for that latter dynamic. It’s a classic noir ending, bittersweet and unresolved. And if you were rooting for Ben and Cat to find each other, Li Jun Li wants you to know the feeling was mutual.
Li Jun Li Says Cat Hardy’s Connection With Ben Reilly Was Real
In a new interview with The Direct, Li Jun Li opened up about where Cat’s head was by the end of the season and why she believes the romance isn’t actually dead.
“I absolutely believe that Cat has a real connection and takes real interest in Ben Riley, and I absolutely think that she was falling for him,” Li said. “I mean, I still have hope for them.”
Her reasoning goes deeper than just chemistry. Li pointed out that Flint had technically abandoned Cat, disappearing not once but twice, leaving her without answers as he lost control of his Sandman powers. Against that backdrop, what Ben offered felt genuinely different.
According to Li, when Ben and Cat first meet, it’s the first time either of them has truly met their match, someone equally sharp, witty, and emotionally intelligent. Their banter, she noted, is something Cat simply doesn’t share with Flint.
That connection, Li argued, makes Cat more than just a femme fatale playing angles. “I think that she is just an inherently good person trying to make a difficult situation work,” she said.
The show is set in Depression-era New York City and follows an older Ben Reilly working as a private investigator after leaving his superhero past behind. Cat Hardy, a nightclub singer with ties to the city’s criminal underworld, is the one who pulls him back into that world. Their dynamic drives much of Season 1’s tension, and clearly left both the actor and the audience wanting more.
No Season 2 has been confirmed yet, but with the kind of reception Spider-Noir has received on Prime Video, it feels like only a matter of time.
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