The Silver Surfer is one of the Fantastic Four’s most iconic villains. In fact, the Marvel comic book character was previously adapted for the 2007 feature film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It also seems like the Silver Surfer could be making their MCU debut, albeit with a gender swap.
Insider @MyTimeToShineH shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) that Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four reboot would include “Galactus’ herald.” Many fans assumed this herald would be none other than the Silver Surfer. What’s interesting, however, is that they add the herald “will be a woman.”
As you can see below:
Galactus’ herald in the MCU Fantastic Four reboot will be a woman pic.twitter.com/6jCZLUMaMs
— MyTimeToShineHello (@MyTimeToShineH) October 23, 2023
Of course, this has yet to be confirmed. It’s also unknown if the herald actually refers to the Silver Surfer, or one of the Galactus‘ other heralds from the comics. This includes Terrax the Tamer, Nova, or Air-Walker. But Silver Surfer is no doubt the most iconic. As such, it would make sense if they were chosen for the MCU’s first Fantastic Four outing.
Naturally, this became the first response from most X users who read the tweet. But plenty of them were unhappy about Silver Surfer potentially having a gender swap. Here are some of the complaints that were shared online:
omg. you are telling me more WOKE. they’re going to keep doing this till they go bankrupt I guess.. unbelievable
— BREAKING 24/7 (@Breaking57) October 23, 2023
Those msheu criticisms were true it seems
— dcmarvelfan6 (@gothicdimension) October 23, 2023
Wtf are we doing ♂️
— Miguel Madrigal (@IamBlackbeard_1) October 23, 2023
Tomorrow’s scoop: Mila Kunis cast as Galactus
— mind of MOTTRAM (@MindofMottram) October 23, 2023
This is disgusting what is wrong with casting a man in a role made for a man
— Luke at 103.5 Dawn FM (@TheStarboyMUFC) October 23, 2023
I’m done x1000 with Marvel and Disney. Ffs make it stop already. pic.twitter.com/zHtGz5pyip
— (@dnmarlin) October 24, 2023
Other users were defensive about the possibility, even suggesting that the herald might not be Silver Surfer at all:
Galactus has had multiple heralds… this doesn’t mean Silver Surfer is a woman, guys.
— sir dingus waldorf (@alexthaalien) October 23, 2023
People like this only think comics include white men only pic.twitter.com/N3jHZBS0iW
— I said so. (@charcekage) October 23, 2023
Choose your player. pic.twitter.com/gULiBVDBPv
— It Was All a Dream, I Used to Read Wizard Magazine (@UpToTASK) October 23, 2023
Some of y’all don’t actually read comics and it shows. pic.twitter.com/82rg6Li7r1
— Marvel Universe Online Project (@marvel_mmo) October 25, 2023
It’s worth noting that this is only a rumor, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. Especially this early in the development of Fantastic Four. But Marvel Studios certainly isn’t a stranger to gender swaps, such as Cosmo in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, so we’ll have to see what happens.
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding the Silver Surfer, their potential gender swap, and the status of the MCU‘s Fantastic Four movie as we have them. Hopefully we’ll have more details soon as to whether or not the Silver Surfer will be included or altered from their comic book counterpart.