After months of speculation and rumors, Marvel and Sony Pictures confirmed that Tom Holland is playing the new Peter Parker in Spider-Man, with Jon Watts coming aboard to direct. While Tom Holland was one of the top contenders for quite some time, the studio's choice of Jon Watts, a relatively-unknown director, to take the helm was quite surprising. The filmmaker recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly for his new indie drama Cop Car, which hits theaters next month, where he describes the process of putting together a low-budget indie and then moving on to Spider-Man.

"I'm not really sure what happened. I had never been to Sundance before. I was nervous because that was the first time we were showing the movie to an actual crowd. [Marvel] got to see Cop Car and they really liked it. Now, I've got to make a slightly more expensive version. It's an opportunity to just have a much bigger canvas instead of just scrapping together any story you can."

One of the big changes in this new Spider-Man movie is the filmmakers plan on skipping the well-worn origin story, which was used in both Sam Raimi's 2002 Spider-Man and Marc Webb's 2012 reboot The Amazing Spider-Man. Instead, Spidey will already be established as a young superhero trying to balance his school work with fighting crime in New York. At just 19 years old, Tom Holland is much younger than both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were when they took on the role, with Jon Watts explaining why Tom Holland was perfect for the role.

"He can be a real high school student. That's why people love Spider-Man. He's the most grounded, relatable of superheroes. And Tom can really do that. He captures that. And he can do a standing back-flip. He's perfect."

As part of the Marvel and Sony deal, Tom Holland's Spider-Man will first pop up in Captain America: Civil War. Little is known about how large or small Spidey's role is in that movie, but it was recently confirmed that John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein will write the Spider-Man script. When asked if he has been collaborating with other Marvel filmmakers while working on Spider-Man, the director had this to say.

"I mean, it's a big universe, so everyone sort of works with each other to make sure that there's continuity and that it all fits together. It's really exciting actually. We're just getting started, working on the script and all that, but it's going to be a great process."

Marisa Tomei is in talks to portray Aunt May in Spider-Man, but it isn't known if any other characters are being cast at this time. With work just beginning on the screenplay, it will likely be quite some time before we hear anything about which supporting characters or villains will be included. What villain would you like to see this new Spidey square off against in this superhero movie? Chime in with your thoughts below.