Although it’s been heavily rumored for the past two months, it’s finally 100% official: The next Spider-Man will be Peter Parker and he will be roughly 15 or 16 years old. Collider got the confirmation from Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, who explains that he wants to take advantage of Parker’s high school life to tell Spidey stories that we haven’t yet seen on the big screen.
“In terms of the age of an actor we’ll eventually cast, I don’t know,” Feige admits. “In terms of the age of what we believe Peter Parker is, I’d say 15-16 is right… [S]ome of my favorite Spider-Man arcs and Spider-Man stories, he’s in high school for a lot of it. We want to explore that. That also makes him very, very different from any of our other characters in the MCU, which is something else we want to explore: how unique he is when now put against all these other characters.”
Although Parker was only in high school for the first 28 issues of the original “The Amazing Spider-Man,” Brian Michael Bendis’s “Ultimate” take on the character was wholly set during Peter’s teen years.
Casting for the new Spider-Man is expected to be announced very soon as the character will debut in Anthony and Joe Russo’s upcoming Captain America: Civil War, set for release on May 6, 2016. He’ll then get his own solo film, written and directed by Drew Goddard, set for release on July 28, 2017. As always, check back for updates as soon as they become available!
