So Julia Garner is confirmed to be playing the Shalla-Bal Silver Surfer in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, with a new rumor offering it’s going to be a woke take on the character which fits with Kevin Feige’s M-She-U approach from the past five years.
In the comics, there is an Earth X story where there are two Silver Surfers and they are both the herald of Galactus.
The original story sees Norrin Radd become the Silver Surfer to save the love of his life, Shalla-Bal, as well as his planet.
Clearing up rumor confusion
A recent rumor hit the net offering Fantastic Four is going to feature Shalla-Bal and Norrin Radd, which fans thought meant two versions of the Silver Surfer would appear in the film.
However, that doesn’t look to be the case, and as I said, it looks as if the Julia Garner Shalla-Bal Silver Surfer is going to replace Norrin Radd in the MCU.
Scooper Daniel RPK clears up confusion surrounding what he said about the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four.
“So once again, I haven’t said anything about Norrin Radd actually appearing or 2 Silver Surfers in The Fantastic Four,” he tweeted.
According to a Redditor, Daniel RPK actually said the following:
As you might have thought, the Silver Surfer Story is reversed in Fantastic Four with Shalla Bal taking over as the herald to save her world and Norrin staying behind.
So just as I said, Shalla Bal is going to replace Norrin Radd as the Silver Surfer and take his story.
LaKeith Stanfield speculated
There was also speculation that actor LaKeith Stanfield is going to play Norrin Radd, which as I said could simply mean he is playing the humanoid version of the character.
Stanfield did post on social media he thought he got the role when Julia Garner was announced, so it remains to be seen if he will be playing Norrin Radd.
Stanfield might have thought he was playing the Silver Surfer when he auditioned for Norrin Radd, so possibly unbeknownst to him, he was only auditioning for the humanoid version.
That said, the trades recently announced LaKeith Stanfield is starring in and producing the video game adaptation of El Paso, Elsewhere.
If that’s the case, Kevin Feige not only replaces Norrin Radd as the Silver Surfer but also race swaps the character. Sure, Norrin Radd is an alien, but he has been depicted with white skin in his humanoid form since the character was created nearly 60 years ago.
One more shovel of dirt on top of the grave
We can also add previous rumors have said Fantastic Four is big time woke as the film has been described as being all about Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but it is rumored Sue Storm is made out to look good while her male counterparts look like crap, particularly Reed Richards, played by Pedro Pascal.
Similar to Black Widow, Eternals, Shang-Chi, Love and Thunder, Quantumania, and The Marvels, Fantastic Four is looking like the next major flop from Marvel.
If the film shits on original characters, original creators and the fans as the MCU has done for the past five years and has a bad story, and crappy CGI, it’s done for.
And all you MCU fans who defend defend this crap, you’re just adding one more shovel of dirt on top of the grave. How’s it been working out? #RIPMCU.
Fantastic Four has a July 25, 2025 release date directed by Matt Shakman and also stars Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm, The Thing.
