Despite the persistent buzz and occasional false starts, concrete plans for a Silver Surfer standalone film have yet to materialize. Fans have been eagerly awaiting any sign of progress, hoping to see the iconic cosmic hero take center stage on the big screen.
Now that Julia Garner has been selected for the role, speculation has intensified about how this casting choice will impact this so-called fictional project and its development.
Will There Ever Be a Silver Surfer Spinoff?
After plans emerged for a Silver Surfer spinoff following the Fantastic Four sequel, writer J. Michael Straczynski was brought on board in 2007.
However, by 2009, Straczynski revealed in an interview with Collider that the underwhelming performance of the sequel prompted Fox to reconsider proceeding with a direct spinoff. He said,
What happened was when FF2 didn’t do as well as they hoped it would do, it caused them to call into question a Silver Surfer movie, The script that I wrote picked up right where FF2 left off. So if they do a Silver Surfer film down the road, it’ll have to be its own separate [thing]
Again in 2018, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Brian K. Vaughan, known for works like The Great Machine, Y: The Last Man, and Saga, was developing a standalone Silver Surfer movie. However, Disney’s merger with Fox in 2019 shelved many Marvel projects, including this one. Now under Marvel Studios’ control, the announcement of a new Fantastic Four movie directed by Jon Watts was made recently as it is already known.
Following that news, recent rumors suggested that the Silver Surfer movie is set to release this year. They were debunked by insider MyTimeToShineHello on X.
That's just a straight up lie lmao 😭 pic.twitter.com/gI4A7w0Mws
— MyTimeToShineHello (@MyTimeToShineH) July 7, 2024
Ultimately, it appears that the solo Silver Surfer project may not happen anytime soon. However, anticipation is high for the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot.
What Are the Latest Updates on Pedro Pascal’s Fantastic Four?
The Fantastic Four first attempted a film in 1994, but never saw the light of day. Their proper debut took place in 2005. A reboot in 2015 directed by Josh Trank bombed critically and commercially. Now, they’re getting another shot in the MCU’s Phase 6 with Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn.
During an interview on The Official Marvel Podcast, Kevin Feige shared that Fantastic Four will be set in a specific historical period. He said,
It is a period [film] and there was another piece of art we released with Johnny Storm flying in the air, making a 4 symbol, and there was a cityscape in the corner of that image. And there were a lot of smart people who noticed that that cityscape did not look like the New York that we know or the New York that existed in the ’60s in our world. And those are smart observations I’ll say.
While Marvel has kept details of the film’s plot under wraps, Stranger Things famed Joseph Quinn hinted in an Entertainment Weekly interview that it would diverge significantly from the typical Marvel movie formula. All in all, a pretty exciting venture to say the least!
The Fantastic Four movie is set to release July 25, 2025.
