Julia Garner opens up about playing the female Silver Surfer, Shalla-Bal, in Marvel’s upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps movie.
Her character was first revealed in the recent trailer, which drew a lot of online criticism. In the comics, the Silver Surfer is a male character, Norrin Radd, one of the only Marvel characters created by and solely credited to the legendary Jack Kirby. Shalla-Bal is his lover who only appeared as the Silver Surfer in one comic set in an alternate universe, side by side with Norrin Radd, Earth X, published in 2000.
However, fitting with Kevin Feige’s approach to the MCU post-Endgame, Feige gender-bent the first appearance of the Silver Surfer in the MCU as he has done with characters in the past, including the Ancient One, Taskmaster, Hawkeye, Mar-vell, etc. and, of course, there is Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel (first swapped in the comics).
Well aware of the Sentinel of the Spaceways
Credit to Garner, she actually knew of the Silver Surfer, as she fills in EW:
I knew the basics of certain comic book characters, [and that] there was the Marvel world and the DC world, and they’re very different. I knew about some of the famous comic book characters, some of them I didn’t know. So when I got presented with this opportunity, I was like, “Wait, what? Me?” Yeah, I was in disbelief, almost because it was so cool. I knew who the Silver Surfer was, and I got to know the Silver Surfer more when I signed on to the project. I really dived in. I read a lot of the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics before starting the project, and I knew that this Fantastic Four was going to be told in a very different way than even the other movies.
Will play anything
She also says that while she knew the Silver Surfer was a man that she didn’t mind:
And then I was confused because I was like, “Wait, isn’t the Silver Surfer a man?” I was just like, “Okay, well, I’ll play anything.” [Laughs]
How is her version different?
Garner also says that her version will be different than the previous versions as she is a woman:
What makes this version different is that the movie is just different. First of all, I’m a woman, so that’s already different, and that hasn’t been told before. This Silver Surfer feels more mysterious in a way, even how it was written, than the other ones. Also, just the world feels so different with the 1960s retro futurism going on. The audience is going to get a completely different experience with this movie, so they’ll have a clean palette.
All about the mystery
Obviously, she can’t say much, but she teases that the audience will go on a journey throughout the film involving her character and Galactus:
She is the herald of Galactus, so she works for Galactus, but you’re not sure where she stands. Does she stand with her boss, or is she just doing what she’s told? She has this mysterious energy about her, and slowly that mystery will get solved with the audience throughout watching it.
More like a statue
Garner also teases how she brought her version of the character to life in the MCU, which she explains is more statuesque in nature:
There were different poses that, the way that they would draw them, they weren’t surf poses — they almost looked like something you would see in sculptures. So I incorporated surfing with the poses of a sculpture, like moving elegantly, like a dance. So it was kind of a mixture of things, but a lot of it was from the comics that inspired me.
The plot follows the Fantastic Four existing in an alternate universe where it’s the 1960s on their Earth. They’ve achieved more of an idealistic society, but Galactus and the Silver Surfer happen to step on their dreams of utopia. What happens next? Stay tuned.
Release info
The Fantastic Four: First Steps gets released in theaters on July 26th. Starring includes Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ralph Ineson, Paul Walter Hauser, John Malkovich, Natasha Lyonne, and Sarah Niles.
