Meet Your New Spider-Man: Tom Holland

Pour one out for Andrew Garfield. There's a new Spider-Man in town.

Tom Holland has been selected by Marvel and Sony Pictures to take on Peter Parker's web-slinging burden in next year's Captain America: Civil War and a subsequent standalone Spider-Man movie.

Tom Holland, 19, previously starred opposite Naomi Watts in tsunami-drama The Impossible and took on the title role in Billy Elliot on the London stage.

He beat a number of contenders for the hotly-contested part, including Hugo's Asa Butterfield.

Sony Pictures' Tom Rothman said of Holland, "We saw many terrific young actors, but Tom’s screen tests were special."

Predicating that most people would probably have no idea what he actually looked like, Holland handily posted this swooning photo of himself on Instagram earlier in the month. (It is believed he was secretly signed onto the picture at the beginning of June.)

Relative newcomer Jon Watts will direct the standalone Spider-Man movie, due out in 2017.

These developments follows a tumultuous year for Spider-Man fans.

An entire Avengers-esque cinematic universe was being built around Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, but the negative reaction to his last screen effort saw the immediate stoppage of production on all sequels and spin-offs (the most baffling of which would have centered entirely on Peter Parker's Aunt May).

Sony Pictures - who have hogged the cinematic rights to Spider-Man for some time - then made a deal with Marvel Pictures to allow a crossover with their own cinematic universe, hence Peter Parker's planned appearance in the third Captain America movie.

As a result, Tom Holland will be the third Spider-Man to hit the screen in eight years. Fun fact: there have been fewer U.S. Presidential elections than Spider-Man recastings in the same period.

Though we wish Holland all the best, it's difficult to not feel a little disappointed by this recycling of pasty Peter Parkers, especially considering Marvel Comics just made the progressive move to promote the half-black, half-Latino Miles Morales as their official Spider-Man. He was previously relegated to acting as Spider-Man in the parallel Ultimate Spider-Man comic series.

Those behind the movies have only ever been interested in casting white Spider-Men.

Leaked emails from the Sony hacks revealed a series of "mandatory" character traits for Spider-Man on celluloid, most significantly, that he always be "a heterosexual Caucasian male."

Let us know your thoughts on the cinematic future of Spider-Man below.