It’s official, folks; Julia Garner will wield the Power Cosmic as the Silver Surfer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s The Fantastic Four.
To call this an inspired casting choice would be a severe understatement; with a quartet of such pronounced personalities spearheading the film as the Four, the ideal Silver Surfer would bring a more esoteric, ethereal gravitas to the herald of Galactus, and Garner looks all but ready to fit that bill quite snugly.
That said, many of us may have some work to do in retraining our brains to not immediately think of Norrin Radd—the more prominent male iteration of the character—when we hear the name “Silver Surfer” now. If anything, though, this will only lead to wider appreciation of the multi-pronged Marvel canon that otherwise may have avoided our radar forever; a canon which does, in fact, house the female Silver Surfer that Garner is set to play.
Is there a female Silver Surfer in the Marvel comics?
Garner will portray Shalla-Bal—an important figure in the Silver Surfer comics especially—in The Fantastic Four, and while her brush with the Power Cosmic is nothing short of trivial in the mainline universe, digging a bit deeper gives us the answers we need.
Indeed, in the Earth X limited series published by Marvel Comics in 1999, both Shalla-Bal and Norrin Radd, her lover, are made heralds of Galactus, with each of them receiving an even split of the Power Cosmic, and subsequently transforming them both into Silver Surfers; therein lies your answer.
But, just because Shalla-Bal will be the main Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four, it doesn’t mean that Norrin Radd is out of the picture completely. More importantly, this should celebrated a fantastic opportunity to expand on the mythology of a character that hasn’t gotten much time in the limelight, and also makes one wonder just what other, more obscure comic book elements could get translated over to Earth-199999 in the future (Earth X also saw Norman Osborn become President of the United States, for instance).
The Fantastic Four hits theaters on July 25, 2025.