Julia Garner Talks Silver Surfer & The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Emmy Winner Julia Garner has been speaking about her role as The Silver Surfer in Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which opens this summer, and says she was a bit perplexed about it all when she was first asked.

Speaking to E ntertainment Weekly. Garner said: “I met up with [director Matt Shakman], 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.”

This is the first appearance of the Shalla-Bal version of the character, but the second for Silver Surfer after his appearance in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007 when he was played by Doug Jones and Laurence Fishburne, the latter providing his voice. In the new film, Garner plays Shalla-Bal, the immortal empress of the plant Zenn-La and Norrin’s lover who becomes Galactus’ herald in exchange for sparing their plant.

“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,” explained Garner. “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.”

On the chances of a return or her own solo movie, Garner said, “A hundred percent, I would love to do that.”