In terms of Marvel heroes, the Silver Surfer is easily one of the most famous. Even to audiences who have never read comics, the surreal image of the Silver Surfer is so iconic that before the MCU, he was likely more famous than Iron Man or Thor. The Silver Surfer’s presence is so significant that 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer‘s entire marketing campaign centered on his big-screen debut.
Given how famous a character the Silver Surfer is, it is shocking that he hasn’t gotten his own feature film. Characters like Elektra, Ghost Rider, Deadpool, and Eternals got feature films dedicated to them before the Silver Surfer. It certainly hasn’t been for lack of trying, as there have been multiple attempted solo films that have been halted and canceled due to changing studio slates, corporate ownership, and contracts. The creator of Babylon 5 and the man who would later be arrested for Matthew Perry’s overdose have been connected to a Silver Surfer movie at one point in time. With a reimagined Silver Surfer set to appear in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Marvel Studios might finally be setting the stage for one of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s greatest creations to headline a feature film.
Two College Students Attempted to Jump-Start a Silver Surfer Movie in the 1990s
The Silver Surfer debuted in The Fantastic Four #48 in 1966, and since then, he has become a major hit with fans, particularly among college students. Stan Lee said that when doing Q&As on college campuses, the most questions he got were on the Silver Surfer. In 1989, USC School of Cinematic Arts film student Erik Fleming and future Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and Monsters vs. Aliens director Robert Letterman approached Marvel Studios and Constantin Film’s producer Bernd Eichinger for permission to make a short film featuring the Silver Surfer as proof of concept for the use of CGI in film. Supervised by Steven Robiner, the five-minute short film was completed in 1991, shortly after the release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, whose T-1000 is a similarly rendered CGI silver character.
After the short film premiered in 1993, it sparked interest in a Silver Surfer film (with many studios likely hoping to ride Terminator 2‘s success). Yet the two young filmmakers who commissioned the short film were never attached to it. Letterman obviously went on to have a successful career making studio family comedies. Erik Fleming went on to direct My Brother the Pig, but is now facing up to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine, resulting in the death of actor Matthew Perry in 2024.
In 1997, Geoffrey Wright, best known for his work on Romper Stomper and Metal Skin, was working on a Silver Surfer film with storyboards from artist Gabriel Hardman being released online in 2021. 20th Century Fox, which held the film rights to The Fantastic Four and their related characters, began work on a Silver Surfer film in the 2000s. Andrew Kevin Walker, whose credits include Se7en and Sleepy Hollow, was hired to pen the script in 2000, but the movie never materialized. Andrew Kevin Walker’s involvement in the Silver Surfer project and an early draft of X-Men led to a joke on the series Entourage about him being the writer of the James Cameron-directed Aquaman movie.
As for the Silver Surfer, 20th Century Fox decided to fold him into their recently released Fantastic Four film series, whose 2005 film proved to be a surprise box office hit. The idea was to introduce the Silver Surfer in the sequel, setting the character up for a spin-off film.
The First Failed Silver Surfer Film
2007’s The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was as much a Silver Surfer film as it was a Fantastic Four sequel. The character was front and center in the marketing, with the film’s teaser trailer being a shortened version of his first action scene. Doug Jones played the Silver Surfer on-set with Laurence Fishburne providing the voice for the character. In keeping with the “Galactus Trilogy” comics that inspired the film, the movie ends with the Silver Surfer sacrificing himself to stop Galactus from destroying Earth. While the Surfer appears to be dead, the movie’s mid-credits scene features the Surfer in space, floating with his eye open and his board flying towards him, setting the stage for a spin-off.
Two days before The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer opened in theaters, it was announced that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski was attached to write a Silver Surfer spin-off film. The film was expected to feature the fallout of the Silver Surfer’s decision to betray Galactus, with him racing back home to his homeworld to protect it. It also would have flashed back to the character’s origin. The movie was also expected to correct the mistake in Rise of the Silver Surfer, where Galactus was depicted as a cloud, with the character appearing in his signature comic book appearance. Following the subpar performance of Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007, 20th Century Fox put the brakes on the Silver Surfer solo spin-off film. By 2008, J. Michael Straczynski stated that he didn’t think the movie would happen, and by the following year, the project appeared to be dead.
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The next update on the Silver Surfer project came in 2012. 20th Century Fox’s film rights to Daredevil were about to expire. The studio was trying to fast-track a 1970s period piece from director Joe Carnahan, but with the deal about to expire, Marvel Studios offered 20th Century Fox a deal. In exchange for an extension on their Daredevil rights, they would gain the rights to Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Seemingly, Marvel wanted Silver Surfer and Galactus as part of the cosmic-based stories they were beginning with the recently announced Guardians of the Galaxy.
20th Century Fox declined the deal, instead allowing the Daredevil rights to revert to Marvel, leading the way to the popular Daredevil television series. The Silver Surfer and Galactus were kept because they were seen as vital parts of the Fantastic Four franchise, one that 20th Century Fox was looking to reboot. However, this was for nothing as the Silver Surfer and Galactus were not included in the failed 2015 Fantastic Four reboot… though they almost were.
2015’s Fantastic Four and Planned Spin-Off
2015’s reboot of Fantastic Four (known by many as Fant4stic) was a widely regarded disaster, a low point in the superhero genre, with its behind-the-scenes history and complications. However, many don’t know that the film actually almost featured Galactus, possibly laying the groundwork for his famous herald, the Silver Surfer. In writer Jeremy Slatter’s original 2012 script for Fantastic Four, Galactus was featured as the film’s main villain. In the script, Galactus would have been tied to the team’s origins and had turned Doctor Doom into his herald. Galactus was then scaled back to a post-credit scene before being cut from the film entirely.
Silver Surfer was not included in these plans. 20th Century Fox likely wanted to have Galactus and the Silver Surfer as key parts of their plans to cross over the newly rebooted Fantastic Four films with their X-Men film franchise. That isn’t what happened. Despite 20th Century Fox deciding to let go of Daredevil in order to maintain a hold of Galactus and the Silver Surfer, the characters ultimately didn’t materialize into any Marvel project in the 2010s. Fantastic Four was a box office and critical disaster, seemingly killing any goodwill the franchise had until the upcoming MCU reboot. Any planned X-Men crossovers were scrapped. Then, in 2017, Disney entered negotiations to acquire 20th Century Fox’s assets, including the film rights to the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and their supporting characters, including the Silver Surfer.
However, before a deal was finalized, 20th Century Fox ran business as usual and greenlit projects, including a Kitty Pryde solo X-Men film and a Doctor Doom film by Noah Hawley. In February 2018, a solo Silver Surfer movie by Brian K. Vaughn was announced. It is unclear whether any of these titles were ever actually in consideration or just announced to project an air of confidence in the studio before the sale. If the deal fell through, they had movies to move forward with. In 2019, when Disney officially acquired 20th Century Fox (later renamed 20th Century Studios), the Silver Surfer solo film was scrapped, along with all the other previous Fox-era Marvel movies. Now, Marvel Studios began developing ways to integrate these characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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The Silver Surfer in the MCU and the Character’s Future
As soon as the Fantastic Four were confirmed to be getting a Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot, speculation began on casting and who the main threat would be. Given Marvel Studios’ interest in Silver Surfer and Galactus as far back as 2012, it is no surprise that they were made the primary villains for the MCU reboot. Yet to distinguish itself from the past cinematic adaptation of the ‘Galactus Trilogy,’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps opts for a different approach regarding the Silver Surfer.
In April 2024, it was confirmed that Julia Garner would be playing the Silver Surfer. Instead of playing a gender-swapped version of Norrin Radd, Garner is playing Shalla-Bal, the love interest of Norrin Radd, who became the Surfer in the Earth-X comic. Due to The Fantastic Four: First Steps taking place in an alternate reality outside the MCU’s sacred timeline, many fans initially took this as a way for the filmmakers to put a new spin on the character while leaving the door open for the original Silver Surfer to appear in the main continuity.
So far, no details have been confirmed regarding the future of the Silver Surfer. Garner is not confirmed to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, which is shaping up to be the biggest Marvel crossover film to date. With her fate unknown, she could possibly perish in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, setting up the Norrin Radd incarnation of the hero. She could also live and return in a hypothetical sequel or get her spin-off film. The Silver Surfer could find her way over into the MCU and be part of the new Guardians of the Galaxy or the rumored Annihilators film in development.
The Silver Surfer is one of Marvel’s most famous names, so it is unlikely The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be the only film in which they are featured in. Be it Shalla-Bal or Norrin Radd, it seems safe to say that the Silver Surfer will have a continued presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and potentially be one of the marquee heroes for Phase 7 alongside the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and Blade. It’s been a long road to get here, but hopefully it will have been worth the wait.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
