It Wasn’t Only Marvel Fans Who Were Confused About Silver Surfer’s Gender in ‘The Fantastic Four’
When The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters later this year, the film will not only introduce Marvel’s First Family to the MCU, but also the fan-favorite Silver Surfer.
Unlike previous adaptations of The Fantastic Four, however, the first version of the character introduced in the MCU will not be the male Norrin Radd, but the female Shalla-Bal.
The decision to include the more obscure version of the herald of Galactus has caused confusion among some fans, who have accused Marvel of gender-swapping the iconic character.
Image: Marvel
As it turns out, it wasn’t only fans who were confused.
Julia Garner Didn’t Know There Was a Female Silver Surfer
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Julia Garner, who will portray Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four, admitted that she was confused when she got the role.
Image: Marvel
“No, I met up with Matt, who’s lovely. We met up at some restaurant in Burbank or something, I don’t even remember, but I knew it was for the Fantastic Four,” she said. “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,” she recalled.
Source: Marvel
” I was a very big fan of Matt’s, so there was already, in my mind, like, ‘I should probably meet with Matt Shakman because he’s a very smart director and I love his work.’ And then he was explaining to me that it’s actually Shalla-Bal and that whole thing.”
“I Thought I Wasn’t Going to Get the Part”
Even after learning that she would play Shalla-Bal, Garner was not convinced that her meeting with Shakman went well. In fact, she was convinced that she would not get the role.
Photo: Disney
“He wasn’t telling me a whole bunch about the movie, but we were talking a lot about the 1960s. Our meeting went all over the place, and I thought I wasn’t actually going to get the part because the meeting was all over the place. I was like, ‘I don’t know how he will hire me for this job.’ I mean, we were talking about communism, brutalist architecture, all this stuff. And then they were like, ‘You got it.’ I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ So I think that we vibed, but you never know, basically, is what I’m saying.”
Will Shalla-Bal Stick Around?
With The Fantastic Four: First Steps set to take place in an alternate universe, it remains to be seen whether or not Shalla-Bal will be the definitive MCU Silver Surfer or if she will be lost in the multiversal madness.
Photo: IMDB
As for Shalla-Bal’s allegiances, Garner teases that the character is shrouded in mystery.
“There’s this sense of this ambiguous energy going on of whether she’s good or not. She is the herald of Galactus, so she works for Galactus, but you’re not sure where she stands,” she said.
“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.”
Source: Marvel
The Fantastic Four: First Steps will hit theaters on July 25, 2025.
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