Marvel and Sony Pictures Announce Tom Holland as the New Spider-Man

By Dondi Tiples, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures have finally found their new teenaged Spider-Man and announced their choice of Tom Holland to play the iconic web slinger.

British actor Tom Holland has been picked to play Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios' teenaged Spider-Man after being picked out of 10 other candidates, including "X-Men Apocalypse" teenage Cyclops, Tye Sheridan, "Boardwalk Empire" actor Charlie Plummer and "Ender's Game" star Asa Butterfield.

Holland, 19, who made his big screen debut in 2012's "The Impossible," is currently filming "Captain America: Civil War" where he will be making a brief introductory appearance for its 2016 theater premiere.

As the third actor to play Spider-Man, following Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Holland's new high-school aged web-slinger will become a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and star in his own solo superhero film that's scheduled for July 28, 2017.

Marvel also announced the new "Spider-Man" movie will be helmed by indie director John Watts, whose comedic thriller, "Cop Car" with Kevin Bacon was well-received at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Holland is due to make another major big screen appearance alongside "Thor" star Chris Hemsworth in the Ron Howard biographic disaster drama, "In The Heart of the Sea" on Dec. 11. Holland will be the first actual teenaged actor to take on the Spider-Man character, Maguire and Garfield having been in their twenties when they played the web-slinging superhero.

According to Marvel's timeline, Holland is set to grow with the "Spider-Man" movies in the MCU, with a trilogy already in the works to explore Peter Parker's character development during his high-school years.

Holland was cast this week after Sony executives Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige conducted an exhaustive search involving a number of meetings and extensive screen tests on candidate actors.