The Spidey search is over.

Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures announced on Tuesday that The Impossible star Tom Holland would be taking over the role of Peter Parker and the web-slinging superhero in the next Spider-Man film, set to hit theaters in 2017.

Jon Watts, who directed the indie thriller Cop Car, will direct the still-untitled film.

Holland, a 19-year-old British actor, has also appeared in Locke and the TV series Wolf Hall. He can be seen this December in Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea.

"We saw many terrific young actors, but Tom's screen tests were special," says Tom Rothman, the chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Pictures Group.

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 coproduce 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.

Sony Pictures promises a new creative direction for this iteration of Spider-Man. Since 2002, there have been five films in the $4 billion series, with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield previously in the title role.

(China Daily USA 06/25/2015 page6)