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Holland, 19, will play Spider-Man's teenage alter ego Peter
Parker as a high-school age student in the upcoming, yet-to-be
titled film.
He follows in the footsteps of Tobey Maguire and Andrew
Garfield, who have portrayed the comic book superhero at older
stages of his life in the five previous movies.
Holland played Naomi Watt's son in the 2012 tsunami drama "The
Impossible" and recently appeared in the British television
miniseries "Wolf Hall."
He was selected after a worldwide casting search to appear in
the film that will be directed by Jon Watts."We saw many
terrific young actors, but Tom's screen tests were special," Tom
Rothman, the chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Pictures Group,
said in a statement.
News of Holland's selection may disappoint some fans who had
said they wanted a black actor to play Spider-Man for the
upcoming film.
Walt Disney Co's Marvel Studios will co-produce the film with
Sony. Under the agreement announced in February, Spider-Man will
appear in the Marvel film, and Marvel characters, such as Iron
Man, Thor and Captain America, can appear in later Spider-Man
films.
Holland is expected to make his first appearance as Spider-Man
in "Captain America: Civil War," which is due for release in
summer 2016.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, a division of Sony Corp, will
continue to own the cinematic rights to Spider-Man.
Writer Stan Lee and writer/artist Steve Ditko created the
fictional superhero character, who first appeared in comics in
1962.
The "Spider-Man" franchise has earned more than $4 billion at
the box office worldwide, making it the most successful
franchise in the history of Sony Pictures.
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Eric Beech)
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