Julia Garner recalls how she was confused about her character in ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’

WASHINGTON: Actress Julia Garner recalled joining the cast of ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ and how she got confused about her character. Garner “was confused” over the fact that her antagonist role, the Silver Surfer, is now a woman, reported Deadline.

The Silver Surfer is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is a humanoid alien with metallic skin who can travel through space with the aid of his surfboard-like craft. Originally a young astronomer named Norrin Radd on the planet Zenn-La, he saved his homeworld from the planet devourer, Galactus, by serving as his herald.

‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ is an upcoming superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Fantastic Four. It is directed by Matt Shakman from a screenplay by the writing team of Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, Josh Friedman, Cameron Squires, Eric Pearson, and Peter Cameron.

First look at Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four: First Steps pic.twitter.com/1cWCDXglbb

— ComicBook.com (@ComicBook) April 17, 2025

The film features an ensemble cast including Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the titular team, alongside Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, John Malkovich, Natasha Lyonne, and Sarah Niles.

“I met up with director Matt Shakman, who’s lovely”, she said, adding, “We met up at some restaurant in Burbank or something, I don’t even remember, but I knew it was for the Fantastic Four”, as per the outlet.

Garner continued, “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.’ 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 explained to me that it’s Shalla-Bal and that whole thing”, reported Deadline.

Julia Garner shared her experience of playing Silver Surfer, “It’s going to be interesting — I have to be so cryptic about everything, otherwise I’m going to have Marvel come after me”, said the actress.

“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,” she added, as per the outlet.

If she were to do a solo MCU movie for Shalla-Bal, Garner replied, “A hundred per cent, I would love to do that”. “The Silver Surfer is such a cool character, and I feel like it’s so rare to be presented with any sort of mystery in this day and age. So any kind of energy like that on screen, I know I want to see that, so that would be awesome if that happened”, she added, reported Deadline. (ANI)