While there have been some "one-and-done" villains in the MCU before, from Thor: Ragnarok's Hela and Iron Man's Obadiah Stane to Doctor Strange's Kaecilius, it's pretty common for actors to join the ever-expanding franchise on the basis that they'll appear in more than one film.
We already know that the titular team in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, played by Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, and Pedro Pascal, will have major roles in Avengers: Doomsday. But the jury's still out on the fates of antagonists Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) and Galactus (Ralph Ineson).
With mystery on our side, GamesRadar+ asked Garner whether she'd be interested in exploring the historic run-ins her character Shalla-Bal, girlfriend of the original Surfer Norrin Radd, has with Mephisto, the villain recently introduced in Disney Plus series Ironheart, in a future project.
"Yeah, of course," she replies with a big grin. "You know, I had so much fun entering this universe. So [I'd be up for] anything. If they told me to come back in tomorrow, I would, so yeah, that would be lovely."
Silver Surfer is typically male in the source material; Norrin Radd having agreed to be Galactus's chrome-looking, board-riding herald to ensure the safety of his planet Zenn-La and his beloved Shalla-Bal. When the Surfer is weakened after an eventual rebellion against Galactus, the devilish Mephisto kidnaps Shalla-Bal and manipulates her mind into thinking she's a Latverian peasant woman named 'Helena'. That then leads Doctor Doom to organize a fake wedding to her, forcing the Surfer into a conflict with the Fantastic Four. The whole debacle ends with Mister Fantastic helping the Surfer and the latter bestowing some of his Power Cosmic energy to Shalla-Bal.
In a handful of issues elsewhere, an Earth X variant of Shalla-Bal is turned into the Silver Surfer by Franklin Richards/Galactus, before being killed in a battle with the Celestials.
For now, it's unclear how much The Fantastic Four: First Steps has lifted from the comics, but we do know that Garner's version of the character will be just as morally complex as previous onscreen depictions. "I was really focused on making [the performance] ambiguous as much as possible in a way; keeping the audience guessing," she says. "I think that that's really what it is; she's trying to do her job and is suppressing her own emotions. But I always like playing characters like that for whatever reason, I'm an actor, what can I say? So yeah, I had a lot of fun."
The Fantastic Four: First Steps releases in UK cinemas on July 24, before arriving in theaters across America on July 25. While we wait, check out all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows on the way, as well as our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order.
