‘Spider-Man’ Director Jon Watts Confirms Peter’s Younger Age

Briefly: Back in June Sony and Marvel revealed that they had found both a star and director for their next Spider-Man reboot.

The Impossible star Tom Holland would be taking the reins as Peter Parker, and Jon Watts (whose latest film, Cop Car, is currently in theatres) would take over the director’s chair.

Since that day, there has been a lot of speculation about just how old Peter would be in this new iteration, and in a just-published interview with Empire Magazine (via Yahoo!), Watts has revealed that we will indeed be dealing with a younger Parker, and reiterated that we won’t be seeing another origin story.

“There are only so many times you can kill Uncle Ben. I love the idea of making a coming-of-age high school movie. We’re really going to see Peter Parker in high school and get deeper into that side of it. He’s just 15 now.”

Watts also noted that he plans for his Spider-Man to feel like a coming-of-age high-school film, mentioning classic John Hughes movies specifically.

Tom Holland is just 19, so for once, he’s just a few years older than the character that he’s playing.

Watts’ Spider-Man will hit theatres on July 28th, 2017.