Director Adam McKay, of everything from Step Brothers and Anchorman to this year’s impending Oscars hopeful Vice, recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Although the big headline from that conversation seems to be that McKay was at least considered as a potential replacement for James Gunn on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the thing that really catches our fascination is the following: McKay is really interested in The Silver Surfer, of all characters. In fact, he wants to go all-in on a Silver Surfer movie for Marvel, and we say let him do it.
While discussing the MCU, McKay said he’s talked with MCU architect Kevin Feige in the past about a range of characters, from The Inhumans (whose TV show failed miserably this year), to Nova. But the one that really stands out is Mr. Norrin Radd, the phenomenally powerful Silver Surfer.
“Silver Surfer is the one I wanna do, man,” said McKay. “I would do anything to do Silver Surfer, because visually that would just be … you could do what the Wachowskis did with Speed Racer with The Silver Surfer. At the same time, there’s a great emotional story in there, where the guy has to make the choice to save his planet.”
There is so much of interest, buried within that paragraph. First, it’s interesting to see a Speed Racer namedrop, as the Wachowskis’ 2008 film starring Emile Hirsch was a box office failure at the time of release, but one that has seen a great amount of critical reappraisal and admiration for its visual style. And then of course, there’s the sheer passion that McKay displays for the character of The Silver Surfer and his comic book origins.
… which of course, raises the specter of Galactus, the celestial destroyer and eater of worlds. One of the galaxy’s biggest cosmic threats, Galactus hasn’t been seen in any real fashion in the modern MCU, but it would be difficult to tell the story of The Silver Surfer without him, for reasons obvious to anyone who is familiar with the comics. McKay’s film could be a chance to wash every bit of the lingering bad taste of 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer out of our mouths, from the depiction of Norrin Radd to Galactus himself.
And so, we’re throwing in wholeheartedly behind this idea. Let the director of The Big Short and Talladega Nights run wild with the Silver Surfer source material. See what kind of craziness he can come up with. This is a film we want to see.