Julia Garner is heralding a different Silver Surfer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Ozark and Wolf Man actress plays the spaceways-surfing herald of ravenous space god Galactus (Ralph Ineson) in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is set on Earth-828, an alternate universe from the main MCU. In this retro-futuristic version of the 1960s, Shalla-Bal — rather than Norrin Radd, who in the comics offers to serve as the herald of Galactus in order to spare Shalla-Bal and their homeworld, Zenn-La — is imbued with silver skin, a flying board, and the power cosmic to seek out energy-rich planets to satiate her master’s hunger.
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When asked by ComicBook if she and director Matt Shakman had talks about whether or not Norrin Radd exists in this universe, Garner confirmed, “We had some discussions. I don’t want to give away too much. But yeah, we had discussions about that.”
Garner couldn’t say if Shalla-Bal’s background parallels Norrin Radd’s origin story as told in 1968’s Silver Surfer #1 by Stan Lee and John Buscema, which marked Shalla-Bal’s first appearance. There the newly transformed Norrin Radd departed Zenn-La after bidding his farewell to Shalla-Bal, who would eventually become empress of her homeworld after the planet was devastated by Galactus.
While she’s not playing a gender-swapped Norrin Radd, the first and most famous of the heralds of Galactus, Garner consulted the comics to research her role as the sky-rider. In one alternate universe, Earth X, Shalla-Bal became a silver-skinned Surfer alongside Radd.
“You always want both,” she said of the source material and the script, calling such a role a “big responsibility.”
“Obviously, the script is almost like the bible in a way for shooting, but then you do the extra work. And you get that from other people. But you really have to do that and search that on your own in a way,” she continued. “It was just so interesting finding out different things about Shalla-Bal and digging deep with that. My first initial reaction was the same as like [everyone’s]. I wasn’t quite familiar. I was like, ‘Wait, wasn’t Silver Surfer a man?’ And then it’s like, ‘Oh, no, it’s different. It’s Shalla-Bal, it’s a different kind of Silver Surfer.’ So really educating myself with that was important.”
As for whether the Shalla-Bal Silver Surfer might return to the MCU — after all, a post-credits scene ending Thunderbolts* showed the Fantastic Four’s spaceship crossing over to the Sacred Timeline — Garner said, “Wishful thinking that we’ll be back in the MCU. I’d love to do a proper scene with [Ineson’s Galactus], that’d be fun.”
Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach star in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which surfs into theaters July 25.
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Image courtesy of Lucasfilm. -
image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
