Julia Garner On Initial Silver Surfer Confusion

Golden Globe winner Julia Garner is part of the cast of Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” this Summer, the “Ozark” actress stepping into the shoes of the famed Silver Surfer character from Marvel lore.

Though more often a man, there have been several instances of female Silver Surfers in past comics, including the notable incarnation known as Shalla-Bal. Garner is playing that version here.

2007’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” saw Doug Jones play the Norrin Radd-version of the role with Laurence Fishburne voicing it. In the comics, Shalla-Bal is the immortal empress of the plant Zenn-La and was Norrin’s lover. Norrin becomes the herald of Galactus in exchange for the being sparing their planet, separating the lovers for eternity.

Speaking about joining the film with EW, she admits she was initially confused as she was unaware of a female incarnation of the character when she met with the film’s director Matt Shakman over a role in the film:

“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.

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] 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.

It’s going to be really interesting – I have to be so cryptic about everything, otherwise I’m going to have Marvel come after me. But it was described as there’s this mystery about her, and 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. 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.”

Garner was also asked if she would do a solo MCU movie with her character to which she responds: “100% I would love to do that. The Silver Surfer is such a cool character, and I feel like it’s so rare to be presented with any sort of mystery in this day and age. So any kind of energy like that on screen, I know I want to see that, so that would be awesome if that happened.”

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is slated to hit cinemas on July 25th.

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