- CinemaCon gave a first look at Shalla Bal
- Also revealed that Sue Storm is pregnant
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps will land in theaters in July
Marvel dropped some surprises at CinemaCon about The Fantastic Four: First Steps including revealing how Shalla-Bal looks and confirming a rumoured plot point.
The CinemaCon event had some big reveals about the much anticipated debut of Marvel’s first family into the MCU era.
One of the biggest was the reveal of Julia Garner’s version of the Silver Surfer – the female version, Shalla-Bal.
Ever since it was announced Garner was playing the character, there has been speculation of how it would look. Garner previously teased that her character form was “shiny” before adding “but all the Silver Surfers are shiny”.
Shiny Shalla-Bal
Attendees at CinemaCon finally got a peek at Shalla-Bal, the sleek silver herald of Galactus. Variety reports that when the trailer was shown at CinemaCon, there were screams and cheers when Shalla-Bal was shown – showing the anticipation around the character’s appearance.
The appearance of the character is apparently in keeping with her look in the original comics – i.e. shiny – which will no doubt please fans.
Fantastic Four – the first family
This also sets up the key battle for the Earth that the Fantastic Four will have to face. “We will face this together,” says Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman (played by Vanessa Kirby) to her husband, Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal). “We will fight it together – as a family.”
This line has extra significance as the trailer clearly shows that Sue is pregnant. This has been rumored for some time, but has now been confirmed. This again should please fans as it shows that the comics have been used as the basis for the movie.
It is also made clear that, in the Fantastic Four’s universe – which isn’t the main MCU continuity – they are an already established team (although their genesis is still referenced) and famous on Earth for it – they were seen on a talk show in the presentation. Of course, as well as Richards/Mister Fantastic and Sue Storm/Invisible Woman the rest of the team comprises Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Ben Grimm/The Thing.
But there are also questions still left unanswered – such as how the team end up in the MCU’s universe, as we know they turn up in Avengers: Doomsday next year too.
All this just serves to ramp up the anticipation for the movie, which drops in theaters on July 25.
