Tom Holland: Who is our new Spider-Man?

The 19-year old will make his first appearance as Spidey in 2016's Captain America: Civil War

Tom Holland has been named as the new Spider-Man (Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe now ranks as the highest-grossing film franchise in the world, smashing box office records with more gusto than a Hulk left-hook. So it might come as a surprise to learn that Tom Holland, the latest recruit, hails from Kingston upon Thames in Surrey.

Yesterday it was announced that 19-year-old Holland had been cast as the newest iteration of Spider-Man after beating five other actors to the part.

He is scheduled to make his first appearance as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War, due out in 2016. It is only a brief cameo, but according to The Hollywood Reporter Holland screen-tested alongside Avengers megastars Robert Downey Jnr and Chris Evans in order to land the part.

Following his cameo, he will star in the as-yet untitled Spider-Man film in 2017.

Holland started out with roles in the West End, appearing in Billy Elliot the Musical, but has gone on to appear in a number of critically-acclaimed films, including 2014’s disaster drama The Impossible (alongside Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor) and as Tom Hardy’s teenage son in Locke.

This year, he will star alongside Chris Hemsworth and Cillian Murphy in In the Heart of the Sea, a biographical thriller set in the 1800s that sees a group of whalers shipwrecked at sea and forced to resort to cannibalism.

Holland is now the third actor to play the iconic web-slinger, after Andrew Garfield was relieved from the role earlier this year. Toby Maguire played Peter Parker in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy between 2002-2007.