The Fantastic Four: First Steps Reshoot Photos Reveal A Major Silver Surfer Spoiler

Now that Marvel Studios has swung back into the good graces of its fan base thanks to the well-liked "Thunderbolts*" (its first fully homegrown audience success since 2023's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"), there seems to be a major uptick in excitement for the forthcoming "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." The Matt Shakman-directed feature generated a ton of buzz when the "First Steps" theatrical trailer premiered online last month, most of it positive.

The Marvel faithful are particularly stoked to finally get a legitimate, comics-accurate portrayal of the planet-devouring giant Galactus (he was a cloud of space debris in 2007's godawful "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer") and are very curious to see how Julia Garner's Shalla Bal figures into the plot as the Silver Surfer. The biggest question fans have been asking is what has or will become of Norrin Radd, the original Silver Surfer and lover of Shalla Bal. Their romance is a movingly tragic arc in the comics and could open the door for some multiverse fun in "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars" if the Marvel Studios braintrust so chooses.

Right now, all we can do is speculate about Shalla Bal's role in the MCU's first adventure with this beloved quartet — though the recent appearance of an unofficial set photo online might give us a major clue about the character's origin (or fate).

Garner was back on the set of "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" this week for reshoots, which is nothing new for an MCU film. Marvel Studios typically tweaks its movies all the way up to the last second and blocks out time in each film's production schedule for reshoots. This is strictly business as usual for the company.

Admittedly, the photos of Garner (you'll have to head on over to the Daily Mail for those) are pretty underwhelming if you're not up on Marvel lore. She's just standing on some rocks in a floral-print dress at the shore of the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles. But comic book fans were quick to wonder if the scene being reshot was of Shalla Bal pleading with Galactus (Ralph Ineson) to spare the planet of Zenn-La (which the orb eater does in exchange for her becoming his cosmic herald). Others posited that this could be a spoiler-y shot of Shalla Bal returning to her Zenn-Lavian form after the defeat of Galactus.

I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes of this movie, but I have to think Garner is in for the long haul as the Silver Surfer. This doesn't mean we won't see Norrin Radd, but it'd be kinda stinky of Marvel to undercut Garner's character by inserting another Surfer into the mix. We won't know for sure until "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" reaches theaters on July 25, 2025, so feel free to let your imagination run wild over the next two months!