Is Laurence Fishburne returning as the Silver Surfer for The Avengers 4?
Laurence Fishburne provided the voice of the Silver Surfer in the 2007 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie (acting provided by the awesome Doug Jones), and while the movie wasn’t all that well received, I did actually dig the portrayal of the Silver Surfer.
So with Disney purchasing Fox that means the Silver Surfer is back at Marvel along with the film rights to Fantastic Four and related characters, including Galactus, which may result in the possibility of Laurence Fishburne voicing the Silver Surfer again as theorized by a Redditor.
Interestingly enough, while Marvel Studios did announce this past Summer at the San Diego Comic-Con that Laurence Fishburne will be playing Bill Foster in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Laurence Fishburne teased a secret Marvel project this past November.
Laurence Fishburne filled in Collider that he is a big comic book fan, and that he wants to be a part of the Marvel universe and actually pitched Marvel ideas:
“…I had wanted very much to be part of the Marvel universe at the same time. So I went to them and pitched them a couple of ideas and basically said, ‘Look, if there’s anything I can do that makes sense for me to do in the Marvel universe, I would love to be involved,'” Fishburne said. “So they came to me with an offer to be Bill Foster in Ant-Man and the Wasp.”
Laurence Fishburne continued with mention that he is developing something else for Marvel that is going to change the world and also that there were legal issues involved:
“I’ve got Black-ish going on, I’m developing something else for Marvel that I can’t talk about. It’s gonna be really cool. It’s gonna change the world, we hope (laughs),” Fishburne said. “I went to Marvel and pitched them something that really couldn’t work out—there was a lot of legal red tape that just [was] something they couldn’t work out. But then they came back with the offer for Ant-Man and the Wasp and then they said, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’ and I went ‘Oh yeah that, yes!’ so…”
At the time of the interview, the Silver Surfer was still at Fox Studios, but not anymore. While it’s been said the Disney and Fox deal may take 12-18 months to go through, a preliminary deal could always be in place for Marvel to be able to use any of the Fox characters, which would enable the Silver Surfer to possibly appear at the end of Avengers 4 (which would also enable Hugh Jackman to appear as Wolverine).
Fans of the Silver Surfer will certainly admit that when the Sentinel of the Spaceways appears it is a definite world changer.
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is also excited for the Silver Sufer, so the Surfer is definitely on Marvel Studios’ radar.