Anya Taylor-Joy was Marvel Studios’ first choice for Shalla-Bal/Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four: First Steps movie, but Taylor-Joy didn’t get the role, and Julia Garner was cast instead.
From The Art of Fantastic Four: First Steps book, some exclusive concept art of Anya Taylor-Joy as the Silver Surfer has been revealed. See the images below.
Concept illustrator Jana Schirmer experimented with the idea that the impact of the Surfer using her energy abilities might change her appearance. “I thought maybe there’s some kind of oxidation going on,” Schirmer says. “Maybe she turns gold, or, if you look at the exhaust pipes on a motorcycle, they change colors because of the heat, which I thought would look cool.”
Schirmer looked at multiple hairstyles for her “Gold Surfer,” as well as depicting her flying with an energy trail, in a way more reminiscent of a subsequent herald of Galactus in Marvel Comics—the Earth woman Frankie Raye, known as Nova.
In The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Shalla-Bal is an alien from the utopian planet Zenn-La who agrees to become Galactus’s metallic-skinned herald in exchange for him sparing her planet. She travels through space on a surfboard-like craft in search of planets for Galactus to feed on.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is directed by Matt Shakman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps officially welcomed Marvel’s First Family into the MCU.
Set in a highly advanced parallel universe in the 1960s, the film followed Reed (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) on their mission to stop the space god Galactus (Ralph Ineson) from devouring their world and kidnapping Reed and Sue’s cosmically powered newborn, Franklin.
The Fantastic Four will make their MCU return in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18, 2026, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps currently streaming on Disney+.
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