Is Julia Garner's Silver Surfer a hero or a villain in The Fantastic Four: First Steps? We don't know, but she'll certainly look shiny.
That's according to the actress, who recently commented on her character of Shalla-Bal, a female iteration of the iconic Silver Surfer.
"You know. I'm - it's shiny," Garner tells ScreenRant. "But all the Silver Surfers are shiny, so it doesn't give you anything. I'm sorry. So we'll wait and see. I'm excited."
The specifics of Garner's role are still under wraps, but if it's anything like the Shalla-Bal of Marvel's comics, she's playing the love interest of Norrin Radd, the more commonly known Silver Surfer.
It'll likely be a CGI-rendered character, seeing as it'll be difficult to practically pull off an entirely metallic individual with a sparkling, chrome-like finish. Shalla-Bal doesn't always appear silver in the comics, sporting a number of different costumes, but according to Garner she'll at least be "shiny" at some point in the film.
The last and only live-action depiction of the Silver Surfer came in 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Played by Doug Jones, he's entirely CGI and brandishes a silver surfboard. The Fantastic Four: First Steps seems to be using CGI sparingly, though.
Leaked photos taken on set seem to show Ebon Moss-Bachrach in makeup as The Thing, with a fully practical head emulating his comic book's rocky counterpart. The actor did reveal "so many amazing animators" have been working on Ben 'The Thing' Grimm in an interview with Variety, suggesting filmmakers are opting for a mix of VFX and practical work to bring characters to life.
Who is the Silver Surfer?
Shalla-Bal first appeared in The Silver Surfer #1 (1968). As the Empress of utopian planet Zenn-La, she's separated from lover Norrin Radd when he volunteers to become the herald of Galactus in exchange for Galactus sparing the planet. As a result, Norrin Radd is given the Power Cosmic. Shalla-Bal gets a fragment of the Power Cosmic, which gives her life restoring abilities.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the 37th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the second reboot of the Fantastic Four film series, following 2015's flop Fantastic Four.
The new cast includes Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the titular team, alongside Ralph Ineson as Galactus, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, John Malkovich, Natasha Lyonne, and Sarah Niles.
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