'The Fantastic Four' Heralds Julia Garner As Its Silver Surfer

The 'Ozark' actress Shalla be a Bal to work with and have on set

Julia Garner is ready for her outer space adventure. The three-time Emmy-winning actress for her part as Ruth in the Netflix series Ozark is set to play Shalla-Bal, the second Silver Surfer in Marvel Comics, in Marvel Studios’s The Fantastic Four.

As the summer start of production comes ever closer, the studio has already made their calls for the four leads in Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm aka the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm aka the Thing. With their casting finally taken care of after so much fan speculation, attention turned to the antagonists. Would it be another Doctor Doom story? Turns out no, and instead, this film will be a second chance to do the Silver Surfer and Galactus story more correctly than 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Shalla-Bal specifically has only been adapted once previously, in the Fox Kids Silver Surfer series in 1998. The character is not some multiversal genderbend, but the immortal Empress of Zenn-La, and the love interest of Norrin Radd, the traditional default Silver Surfer, and a Zenn-La native. They are torn apart when Radd becomes Galactus’s herald to spare their home planet from being eaten.

In addition to her role on Ozark, Garner earned an Emmy nomination for playing Anna Delvey on their limited series Inventing Anna. Her TV career began recurring as Kimberly Breland on The Americans for 10 episodes, and was also a main role as Terra Newell on the first season of Dirty John. In film she’s appeared in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, but more recently has The Royal Hotel with Jessica Henwick and Hugo Weaving. She will next be in Blumhouse and Universal’s Wolfman, and the Paramount thriller Apartment 7A.

The Fantastic Four is directed by WandaVision creator Matt Shakman from a script by Josh Friedman, Jeff Kaplan, Eric Pearson and Ian Springer. The film is set to be released on July 25, 2025.

Source: Deadline