Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four” Casts Julia Garner as Silver Surfer
Julia Garner’s set to blast off in a totally new direction with Marvel Studios.
The talented Ozark alum has been cast in director Matt Shakman’s highly-anticipated reboot of The Fantastic Four, as confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter. Garner will be joining a stellar cast in Shakman’s take on Marvel’s original super family, with Pedro Pascal playing Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby taking on Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn playing Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
The reboot has been a long time coming. Marvel Studios finally got the rights to Fantastic Four in 2019 when Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, and they’ve been making sure to get all the correct pieces in place before reintroducing some of their most iconic characters and possibly the surest bet to make up for the losses of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Evan’s Captain America, and Scarlett Johannson’s Black Widow, all of whom said goodbye in various ways during Avengers: Endgame. Marvel’s new-look Four will differ in tone, substance, and style from the three films Fox produced—Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), and a reboot, Fantastic Four (2015).
In fact, when Marvel revealed The Fantastic Four casting news, they included this illustration, which gives us a hint of which direction Shakman’s film might be headed:
View this post on Instagram
By the clues embedded in the illustration, the new Fantastic Four looks like it’s going to be set in the 1960s, the very era they were introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and helped launch the Marvel Universe. Black Widow and Thor: Ragnarok scribe Eric Pearson is currently penning the script.
As for Garner, she’ll be taking on another iconic character in the Marvel canon. The Silver Surfer first glided onto the pages of a Marvel comic in “Fantastic Four No. 48” as the astronomer Norrin Radd. Yet Garner is reported to be playing a different version of the Surfer known as Shalla-Bal, the lover of Norrin Radd.
Garner was a force of nature in her run on Ozark, where she picked up three Emmys playing the lovable tough nut Ruth Langmore. She earned another Emmy nod for her performance playing Anna Delvey in Netflix’s Inventing Anna. You’ll next see her in Universal and Blumhouse’s The Wolf Man, due next year.
The Fantastic Four is slated to hit theaters on July 25, 2025.
For more on all things Marvel Studios, check out these stories:
New “Daredevil: Born Again” Image Reveals Jon Bernthal’s Return as The Punisher
Florence Pugh Plays By Her Own Rules in Set Video From Marvel’s “Thunderbolts”
First “Deadpool & Wolverine” Images Tease the Start of a Beautiful Relationship
“Deadpool & Wolverine” Makes History as Most Watched Trailer Ever
Featured image: Julia Garner as Anna Delvey in episode 102 of Inventing Anna. Cr. Aaron Epstein/Netflix © 2021
