Unless you’ve been held captive in the wilderness with no access to the internet for the last 24 hours, you’ll know that The Impossible and How I Live Now star Tom Holland has been cast as the new Spider-Man, taking over the web-shooters from fan favourite Andrew Garfield.
Producer Amy Pascal said: “Sony, Marvel, Kevin and I all knew that for Peter Parker, we had to find a vibrant, talented young actor capable of embodying one of the most well-known characters in the world. With Tom, we’ve found the perfect actor to bring Spider-Man’s story into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
Holland will be playing a high school version of Spider-Man. Being 19 in real life, he is closer in age to his character than his predecessors Garfield and Toby Maguire, who were 28 and 26 respectively when they started playing the hero. Holland is at an age that will allow him to play a convincing teenager for a while.
But you won’t have to wait until 2017 to see Holland is worthy of his Great Responsibility. He’ll be making an appearance as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War next year. However, it’s only likely to be in a brief cameo role. Filming for Civil War is currently underway, and Variety has reported that Holland will “only be shooting for about a week”.
Additionally, a director for the as-yet-untitled 2017 Spider-Man reboot – and the first Spider-Man film to be included in the MCU – has also been announced. Cop Car and Clown director Jon Watts is set to helm the project.
Watts isn’t too well known as a director but Cop Car (which will be released on 7 August in the US) has been getting great reviews from its premiere at Sundance earlier this year. We’ll be interested to see what he does with Spider-Man.
Producer and director of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige said: “As with James Gunn, Joss Whedon, and the Russo brothers, we love finding new and exciting voices to bring these characters to life. We spent a lot of time with Jon and find his take and work inspiring.”
Tom Rothman, Sony Pictures Motion Pictures Group chairman, said in a press release: “It’s a big day here at Sony. Kevin [Feige], Amy [Pascal] and their teams have done an incredible job. The Marvel process is very thorough, and that’s why their results are so outstanding. I’m confident Spider-Man will be no exception.
“I’ve worked with a number of up-and-coming directors who have gone on to be superstars and believe that Jon is just such an outstanding talent. For Spidey himself, we saw many terrific young actors, but Tom’s screen tests were special. All in all, we are off to a roaring start.”
The Untitled Spider-Man Reboot will be in cinemas on 28 July 2017 in the US. Get all the latest superhero movies news with every issue of SciFiNow.
