Julia Garner in surprise casting as Silver Surfer in new Fantastic Four movie

‘Ozark’ star will reportedly play Shalla-Bal, a version of Silver Surfer who appeared in Marvel comics

Julia Garner is set to play Shalla-Bal, a version of the iconic Silver Surfer character, in the upcoming Marvel movie The Fantastic Four.

According to reports in Deadline, the Emmy-winning Ozark actor, 30, will join the previously announced cast for the superhero movie, which is slated to be released in July 2025.

The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal will star as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach has been cast as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Vanessa Kirby will portray Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) will play Johnny Storm/The Human Torch.

Victor von Doom, the franchise’s supervillain, has yet to be cast. Julian McMahon originated the antagonist in the 2005 movie.

Based on characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics, that first movie version featured Ioan Gruffudd as Reed, Michael Chiklis as Ben, Jessica Alba as Sue and Chris Evans as Johnny.

The 2005 film and its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, were originally produced by 20th Century Fox. The new Fantastic Four will represent the first time the superhero team will join the interlinking Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Julia Garner (left) and a model of the Silver Surfer from 2007’s ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’ (Getty)

Disney’s Marvel Studios acquired the rights to the Fantastic Four in 2019 when the company merged with Fox.

WandaVision director Matt Shakman will helm the next iteration of the superhero team on the big screen.

Last November, news leaked that Pascal was “in talks” to lead the reboot. While earlier that year, Mila Kunis was forced to shut down rumours that she had been tapped to play Sue Storm.

Fans had also favoured John Krasinski and Emily Blunt to play Reed and Sue, respectively. Krasinski had played an alternate universe version of Mr Fantastic in the MCU’s 2021 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

His version of the character, however, was killed off and Marvel subsequently insisted that Krasinski would not necessarily play the character within the main MCU timeline.

The original Fantastic Four follows a group of scientists who develop superhero qualities after they’re exposed to a mysterious cosmic storm.

The Fantastic Four is scheduled to release in cinemas on 25 July 2025

In 2022, it was reported that Garner had been cast to play Madonna in the pop star’s much-anticipated biopic, only for the film to be shelved.

However, last year rumours circulated that the movie may be back on after the singer shared photos of herself with Garner, captioned: “B**** we’re Madonna!”