Julia Garner Joins Marvel’s ‘The Fantastic Four’ As Shalla-Bal Version Of Silver Surfer

With the core cast of The Fantastic Four announced earlier in February 2024, the key question that popped up was – “Which foe will Marvel’s first family face?”

In an exclusive from Deadline, Emmy winner Julia Garner (Ozark, Inventing Anna) will be stepping on the cosmic surfboard as the Silver Surfer. Likely playing a variant of the Silver Surfer, Garner’s character might be Shalla-Bal from Earth-9997 who was featured most prominently in the 1999 comic book limited series, Earth X.

However, Shalla-Bal goes further back than her Earth X portrayal and has been a love interest for the Silver Surfer. In her earliest appearances, Shalla-Bal was the Empress of Zenn-La, a planet created by the time-displaced Norrin Radd Silver Surfer. Like most planets in the Marvel comics, Galactus eventually stripped the planet bare. Through the eventual intervention of the Silver Surfer imbuing Shalla-Bal with the Powers Cosmic, she was able to help restore life to Zenn-La once again.

With the Silver Surfer making his way into the movie, it would only be natural that Galactus would follow soon after. Based on what we know,The Fantastic Four is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s past, it’ll be interesting to see how the great devourer makes his appearance considering that his presence is not hinted in the MCU’s present.

The Fantastic Four is slated to be released exclusively in theaters on 25 July 2025.