the wait is finally over. taking the place of tobey maguire as peter parker in one of the most lucrative movie franchises in history is andrew garfield.

who is he, you ask? he was anton in terry gilliam’s the imaginarium of doctor parnassus. if that performance is not enough to convince you that he has the acting chops to leave an indelible mark in the business, maybe you weren’t really paying attention. or maybe you think it doesn’t really take much acting to pull off the role of the friendly neighborhood spider-man…

he is 26 years old and, like tobey maguire before him, has that schoolboy look that can pass for a high school peter parker. he was a gymnast, so we can be assured that he can hack the action sequences.

the next spider-man film, slated for 2012, will be rebooted (that is, the series will start over with new ideas) and sam raimi will no longer be involved. it will instead be directed my marc webb (who was signed into the project last january), renowned music video director who has worked with some of the biggest names in music since 1997. the only movie credit to his name is the critically acclaimed (500) days of summer, a film that shows he can give the mary jane – peter romance angle superb vision, but has yet to prove his mettle in faced-paced action.

going back to andrew… you might also remember him as todd in lions for lambs and francis in the other boleyn girl. for his performance as jack in boy a he won a bafta award in 2008. he has also appeared on television, most notably in the crime drama red riding.

with his male model good looks, he will certainly leave a horde of swooning ladies in his wake as spidey.

speaking of modeling, he appeared in vogue december last year with one imaginarium co-star, model lily cole, in a hansel-and-gretel-inspired photo shoot. no less than annie leibovitz herself is responsible for these ethereal photos. i’m sure you can spot lady gaga in two of these.

images from comic book resources, the independent, fametastic and vogue.