‘Fantastic Four’ cast: Julia Garner to play Silver Surfer
Julia Garner, the three-time Emmy-winning co-star of “Ozark,” looks to be joining Marvel’s next big bet, the relaunch of the First Family of Comics, “Fantastic Four.” As per Deadline, she’ll be appearing as the grooviest of villains, the Silver Surfer. But before you can reach for your podcast mic and shout about how producers are ruining movies by making them all woke, please note that a female version of the Silver Surfer, known as Shalla-Bal, does exist in various splinters of the comics’ multiverse. So there.
Whether or not director Matt Shakman, whose television credits include zany shows like “You’re The Worst” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” as well as “WandaVision,” “Game of Thrones,” and “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” will have the sand to include a moment in which Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm serenades Shalla-Bal with a rendition of the Beach Boys’s “Surfer Girl” remains to be seen.
The indoor kids at IGN have interpreted the involvement of the Shalla-Bal character as further evidence that the upcoming “Fantastic Four” will be set in some kind of pocket universe compared to the other Marvel Cinematic Universe films. (Think of Robert Pattinson’s “The Batman” as a success model.) An official promo illustration released by Marvel shows Ben Grimm/The Thing reading a Life magazine from the 1960s. Now, this little doodle may not represent a moment “from the text” of the upcoming movie, but if it were to mean that, well, it would be set long before Jon Favreau’s 2008 film “Iron Man.”. On the one hand, this would kinda break the spell of the MCU’s whole “it’s all connected” essence—however, recent duds like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” suggest that a new philosophy is greatly needed for the franchise.
In addition to Garner and Quinn, “Fantastic Four” boasts Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, the brilliant (and flexible) scientist/leader of the group, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, the light-bending older sister to Johnny and love eventually wife to Reed, plus Emmy winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm, the heimish junkyard bruiser who becomes the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing (the greatest comic book character in the history of the form.)
As has been seen in two other films (three, if you count the unreleased one), these four brave souls go to outer space and get pelted with gamma rays, which gives them magic powers. Don’t question it.
Before “Fantastic Four” hits theaters in July 2025, we’ll see Garner, who recently starred with Jessica Henwick in Kitty Green’s terrifying “The Royal Hotel,” in Leigh Whannel’s update on “Wolf Man” opposite Christopher Abbott from Blumhouse and as the lead in Apartment 7A, a prequel to Rosemary’s Baby.
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