Marvel's Fantastic Four has cast Ozark star Julia Garner.
According to Deadline, Garner will be playing the Silver Surfer in the film — though it will be the Shalla-Bal version of the cosmic herald rather than the more well-known Norrin Radd.
Marvel Studios has made no comment on these new reports.
In the comics, Shalla-Bal is the empress of the planet Zenn-La who volunteers to become the Silver Surfer in order to spare her world from being eaten by Galactus.
The Silver Surfer is the herald of Galactus, and they arrive to announce the presence of the cosmic entity before he devours a new world.
While Shalla-Bal is a lesser-known incarnation of the Surfer, she has a long history in Marvel Comics lore — having first appeared in 1968.
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Garner comes to the MCU with an esteemed background, have won three Primetime Emmy Awards for playing Ruth Langmore in the Netflix series Ozark.
She also earned rave reviews for playing convicted scammer Anna Delvey in Netflix's Inventing Anna. The actress has recently moved into lead movie roles with the upcoming horror projects Wolf Man and Apartment 7A.
In Fantastic Four, she'll be starring opposite Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
While filming has yet to begin, Ebon Moss-Bachrach has revealed that the cast are already bonding with a group chat.
"I have [Pedro's] number, so it says Pedro Pascal, and then there’s two +44 [the UK country code] numbers. I don’t know which one’s Vanessa and which one is Joseph," he revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
"But everybody said something! Everyone’s put a little image or a sticker or a gif or something out there, so people are invested, I guess? No one’s being coy! Everyone showed up. It’s nice, it’s nice."
The Fantastic Four will be released on July 25, 2025.
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Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
