Meet Your New Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield

Ending months of speculation from fans and pundits on who would be cast in the upcoming “Spider-Man” reboot, Sony Pictures announced Andrew Garfield had been cast in the role.

While Garfield isn’t a household name yet, the 27-year-old British actor has done solid work as a supporting actor on the BBC’s “Doctor Who,” “Lions For Lambs,” and “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.” He’s next slated to play Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in the upcoming pic “The Social Network.”

Here’s a fan-created montage of Garfield at work:

Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chair Amy Pascal gushed about the signing:

Spider-Man is a classic superhero — a young man who balances his responsibility to serve humanity and crush evil with the shyness and normalcy of someone struggling to find himself. The role demands an extraordinary actor. You need someone who can magically transform himself from Peter Parker into Spider-Man. An actor who will depict the vulnerability of youth and the strength and confidence of a legendary figure at the same moment. We have found that actor in Andrew Garfield. From the first time we saw him in the upcoming film The Social Network, to his glorious screen test, which floored all of us, we knew that we had found our new Peter Parker.

When Sam Raimi cast Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, it catapulted him from “that guy” character actor status to a solid A-lister. While time will tell if Garfield will get the same career boost, it’s already a good start.

The as-yet-untitled Spider-Man reboot, directed by Marc Webb from a script by James Vanderbilt, lands in theaters July 3, 2012.