Stan Lee is the chief architect of Marvel comics as he is the creator of major characters such as Thor, Hulk, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, X-Men etc. But he is not just God of Marvel comic-book universe but also someone whose every word is taken really seriously at the MCU. Firstly, he said that Black Panther movie is in the works and there we had Black Panther even when odds were against it at that time; secondly he said that Black Widow solo movie is inevitable and we recently heard that it is indeed being looked into by Marvel creative team.
In another interview, Stan Lee talked about how Norrin Radd was sidelined in the movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and hence deserve a second chance. Here is what he said about Silver Surfer:
“He’s the one I want to see more. He’s the most philosophical of all the characters I’ve ever worked on. And I have an idea for my cameo in that one!”
And buoy we might have a Silver Surfer movie in the future. Whoa! Silver Surfer made a debut in Marvel’s oldest comic ‘Fantastic Four’ in the year 1966. He is one of the most powerful cosmic beings in the entire Marvel universe. He was turned into a herald by the Galactus aka Devourer of the worlds in return of sparing his home planet and his job was to hunt down planets for Galactus to consume.
From animated series to the comic books, the character was adored by millions of comic book fans when he was introduced. Thanks to the legendary Jack Kirby for keeping him out of the spaceship characters and decided to give Silver Surfer a new dimension to his personality. When he came up with initial drawings of the character, he was just too bored of drawing spaceships for the comic book characters so he drew the board for him.
Silver Surfer’s board is one of the most strongest weapons in the whole Marvel universe. It is equivalent to Captain America’s shield and Thor’s hammer, as the boat is made from the same material he is made of. Hence, the board is indestructible and only a few have powers to destroy it.
Just like other superheroes, Silver Surfer origin story is really tragic and harrowing and thus made it big in the comic book world. He was young when his parents committed suicide. His mother, Elmar Radd, was not comfortable living her life on the family’s home planet while his father Jartan was a criminal who took his own life.
We know that the Disney-Fox merger is currently running its course, and the deal will take about 12-16 more months to be finalized, still, this is not stopping Fox to bring in more and more spinoff movies set up in the X-Men universe even further and introduce the Fantastic Four Universe again! Fox currently has at least around 9 movies under development and out of those, 3 are have already finished production and are in the post Production stage. One more movie has reportedly been added to the list, and the fans may be happy about this as it is going to be a solo movie centered by Silver Surfer.
Things are looking great for the deal to happen as Disney is going to acquire Fox till almost mid-2019 until everything goes smoothly. One year is a lot of time and things could go crazy in this span of time if they were too. Comcast is making moves to prevent the deal from happening and many other aspects could also stop this deal from getting approved. Well, for this particular reason itself, 20th Century Fox has to work every day normally in order to have a back-up if things go south and also, they have to keep their profits up to keep the investors satisfied till Disney takes over. And for this matter, Fox is just not stopping with the rights to the Superheroes that they have.
Now, along with Doctor Doom, Silver Surfer may very soon fly through the cosmos on the big screen yet again. Fox has failed the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom three times, and Silver Surfer and Galactus once. All these four character factions are among the biggest characters of Marvel’s comic lore and Fox has not done justice to any of these.
Their recent trend of movies has been quite good since they have been focusing on better and comic-accurate products, but who is to say, that they are not going to screw it up again.
Since they still own Fantastic Four and have to do something with that Universe in the coming 2-3 years, they have been working on a solo Doctor Doom movie, and now, as mentioned above, a solo Silver Surfer movie has been put into development. According to what is being reported, Brian K. Vaughan, the creator of Marvel’s Runaways and writer of other hit comics including Saga, Paper Girls, and Y: The Last Man, is going to pen the script for the Silver Surfer movie.
Silver Surfer was introduced to us in the movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which came out in 2007. Silver Surfer was voiced by actor Laurence Fishburne back then, and he is still interested to voice the character if the movie goes forward and Fox decides to hire him again.
Silver Surfer is an integral part of the Fantastic Four stable of characters whose rights were earlier not owned by Marvel, but by 20th Century Fox. The Fantastic Four movie did’nt have cameo of Stan Lee and till yesterday there was no reboot in sight. There were rumors on the internet that the next F-4 movie will be about the children of Reed Richards and Sue Storm and the inclusion of Silver Surfer in the movie was unlikely. Further, the 20th Century Fox was totally averse to working with the Marvel the way Sony worked in the new Spiderman franchise. But guess what Disney’s deep pockets will make everything happen including a possible Silver Surfer solo movie.
Silver Surfer is surely one of the secret projects that Fox has been putting in development in the recent years, to have a back-up if the Disney Fox Deal does not go through. Well if it does, then there might not be any point for all these movies, but if the Deal does happen successfully, we know that all of Fox’s projects port 2019, except Deadpool is going to be cancelled with the actors and the crew behind the movies being paid off, because Disney would surely want to start fresh while bringing all these characters into the MCU.
Fox currently has 3 release dates scheduled for 2020 which are – March 13, 2020, June 26, 2020, and October 2, 2020. Kitty Pryde is anticipated to be the first movie to come out, and it will hit the theatres on March 13, Multiple Man starring James Franco will open on June 26 and probably Silver Surfer will open on October 2nd. Doctor Doom is also in the development stage and Fox has a release date for March 5, 2021, as well. So Doctor Doom and Silver Surfer could switch dates with each other and probably any other movie in 2020, and Silver Surfer may come out on either of these four dates if not after that.
These are some of the secret projects that are in the works at Fox as it wants to stay relevant in the superhero game. But given the track record of Fantastic Four franchise, Is it possible for Disney to make a quintessential movie on the world’s baldest, shiniest superhero that fans really deserve? Because last time it was a crushing blow to fans’ expectations and killed any enthusiasm for an otherwise amazing comic book concept in the future.
The hit in terms of box office and perception among comic book fans was so severe that F4 franchise could never be resurrected again which was a tragedy. But there is a chance to restore the lost glory and give us the Silver Surfer we deserve and maybe F4 movie as well in the future. Hopefully, the new movie on Silver Surfer will give a fresh reboot to the character and ignore the horrible portrayal in the 2015 F4 reboot.
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