The wait is finally over. After months of speculation, rumors, and false leads, Marvel has finally announced who will play the new SPIDER-MAN and who will helm the wall-crawler’s return. The Impossible‘s Tom Holland, who was long touted as the favorite and in close contention for the role, will star as Peter Parker, while Cop Car helmer Jon Watts will direct. Deals for the Sony Pictures/Marvel studios joint production are still being finalized, but the film is said to return the character to high school and will not serve as an origin story.
Holland and Watts were both on shortlists for the project and were handpicked by Kevin Feige and given Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman’s seal of approval. Amongst hundreds of taped auditions for the teen hero, Holland screen-tested twice: the first with Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr, and the other with Captain America’s Chris Evans. Holland will make his debut in Captain America: Civil War, which is currently shooting in Atlanta.
In a statement regarding Watts’ hiring, 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.”
“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.” added Pascal, regarding Holland’s casting.
The solo Spider-Man outing has a tentative release date of July 28, 2017, with the studios already on the move to land a writer.
Holland is repped by WME and Watts is repped by CAA.
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Clark Allen | Associate Editor
