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The announced casting of Ozark actor Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer in the upcoming MCU reboot of The Fantastic Four has sparked fury from conservative comic fans lamenting that Marvel has gone "woke".
The iconic role is a humanoid alien with metallic skin portrayed as male as seen in 20th Century Fox's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007.
According to Deadline, Garner will play the female character Shalla-Bal, "a version of Silver Surfer from the comics."
Rounding out the leading cast is Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm (a.k.a. The Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm (a.k.a. The Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm (a.k.a. The Thing).
The internet braced itself for the anti-woke whining.
As predicted, the conservative unrest began.
A female Silver Surfer is not a foreign concept in the Marvel comic books.
A character named Juno, who was the daughter of Arimathes and the granddaughter of the legendary Hercules is given cosmic powers to become a new incarnation of the Silver Surfer.
Garner's Silver Surfer is Shalla-Bal, a canonically humanoid alien Empress of a utopian planet, who according to Comicbook becomes "the Silver Surfer in the separate continuity of the Earth X miniseries."
While much is not known about the direction Garner's character will go, plenty of fans approved her casting.
Details surrounding the plot are scarce—however, rumors suggest the new film could take place in the past based on the 1960s-inspired concept art Marvel released as part of its casting announcement.
Previous film iterations of The Fantastic Four left little to be desired, including 2005's Fantastic Four, its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and a 2015 reboot of the series, Fantastic Four, all of which were panned by fans and critics.
The Fantastic Four was integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in March 2019. It will be one of the first film in Phase 6 of the MCU.
WandaVision director Matt Shakman will helm Marvel's The Fantastic Four from a script written by Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, with rewrites from Avatar 4 co-writer, Josh Friedman.
The film is scheduled for a July 25, 2025 release.