Marvel’s cinematic universe is back in full force on the 2025 movie schedule. With its three movie commitment ending with Reed Richards and company hitting the box office, that Fantastic Four: First Steps Silver Surfer reveal is giving fans a lot to mull over before its July debut. That sort of approach is only natural, as actor Julia Garner not only pursued the unique challenges of her role, she thought that the powers that be would go with someone else - and for pleasantly amusing reasons.
Julia Garner Met Her Fantastic Four: First Steps Casting With Some Very Specific Anticipation
What we know about the Fantastic Four reboot now has us primed to see Garner’s Shalla-Bal variant of the classic Marvel character hit the silver screen. However, as the Wolf Man star admitted to EW, she didn’t know that was the case when first being approached. As far as Garner was concerned, the early phases of even being offered a Marvel movie intrigued her with the following prospect:
She's so different than anyone I've ever played, and that was also another reason why I wanted to do it. I don't expect everybody to watch Ozark, or [Inventing] Anna, or The Assistant. Some people are only going to watch certain things, so that's why I want to branch out to every genre, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to do Marvel — it's reaching a different kind of audience.
Despite the diversification of what you might find through your Disney+ subscription, the audience that watches heavier dramas such as those isn’t a slam dunk for people who have the MCU on the mind. Sure, there’s some overlap, but it has nothing to do with making the decision to cast Pedro Pascal as the new Reed “Mr. Fantastic” Richards.
At the same time, Ms. Garner’s Fantastic Four motion-capture comments do seem to make her qualified for the gig in a way most may have forgotten, thanks to her role in Robert Rodriguez’s CGI-heavy sequel Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Still, the questions only continued to present themselves for the young performer thanks to a very fruitful conversation with First Steps director Matt Shakman that went places Marvel movies don’t usually tackle.
Julia Garner Didn’t Think She’d Be Cast As The Silver Surfer For Two Funny Reasons
Recalling her first meeting to discuss The Fantastic Four: First Steps with the WandaVision helmer, Julia Garner recalled the shock she felt when being offered one of the biggest roles in an upcoming Marvel movie that’s already hotly anticipated. In terms of reckoning with being asked to play the Silver Surfer, Garner started out with the following mindset:
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.’
Clearly Shalla-Bal wasn’t put forward in the initial ask for the participation of the Weapons actor, and by time Fantastic Four’s Silver Surfer casting announcement hit, that reveal surprised even long time comic fans.
Of course, this wouldn’t be as fun of a story if the Silver Surfer’s stereotypical gendering was the only sticking point. In revealing some of what happened in her meeting with Shakman, Ms. Garner expressed her shock in landing the gig thusly:
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?’
Reading that laundry list of topics make you think that Julia Garner was auditioning for something like the 2025 Oscar winner The Brutalist rather than Fantastic Four’s fourth cinematic iteration. But maybe those subjects somehow appealed to how Mr. Shakman interprets the script to First Steps.
If that’s the case, then the already threatening nature of Shalla-Bal will absolutely have the intellectual bent most would expect - making our cinematic reunion with Marvel's First Family of superheroes even more intriguing. We’ll see what shakes out, when this retro-futuristic blockbuster hits theaters on July 25th.
But if you’re looking forward to getting back to the MCU as soon as possible, don’t forget that Thunderbolts* will be breaking ground at a movie house near you starting May 2nd.
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