Kevin Feige Seems Open To Talks With Adam McKay Over Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer comics

Last week, Vice writer and director Adam McKay expressed interested in making a Silver Surfer movie, and since Norrin Radd is among the many characters who will finally be able to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe once the Fox-Disney merger is finalized, that means McKay would need to chat with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige about that. While such a project currently (or at least publicly) isn't in the works for the MCU, Feige appears open to the idea of collaborating with McKay again. When asked if McKay had gotten in touch with him about a Silver Surfer movie, Feige responded:

I've not gotten a call, but I've seen Adam tonight and at a number of these awards and he is not only, as everybody knows, an incredibly smart guy, he is a honest to goodness fan. And, you know, he did a lot of sort of behind-the-scenes help with us on the first Ant-Man film, and have you seen Vice? Little cameo. Little Galactus cameo that we helped him get. So I look forward to speaking with him more.

Yes, as bizarre as it may sound to those of you who haven't seen Vice, the Dick Cheney biopic did indeed feature an image of Galactus, Devourer of Worlds and Silver Surfer's former master, further showing off Adam McKay's comic book cred. As Kevin Feige pointed out while speaking with MTV News, McKay already has a prior relationship with Marvel Studios for his work rewriting Ant-Man with Paul Rudd, and the company actually approached McKay about succeeding James Gunn as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. He turned down that opportunity, but maybe he and Feige could work out some kind of arrangement with Silver Surfer.

So far, Silver Surfer's only live action appearance has been in 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, where he was physically portrayed by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne. It was rumored last year that Silver Surfer would appear in Avengers: Infinity War, but directors Joe and Anthony Russo later debunked that claim, noting that he was among the characters they couldn't use. It was also reported that 20th Century Fox is developing a Silver Surfer movie, although with the studio set to soon be absorbed into the Disney empire... I mean, family, who knows if that particular project will still be moving forward.

As far as what kind of Silver Surfer movie he wants to make, Adam McKay said he wanted to make it a visual spectacle that would be like the MCU's version of Speed Racer. Considering how cosmically crazy the Silver Surfer mythology is by even by Marvel standards, this sounds like a decent basic concept to start with. And at the very least, a Silver Surfer movie would ideally finally give us a faithful adaptation of Galactus, as opposed to another giant cloud.

As far as what the future holds for the MCU cosmically speaking, The Eternals and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are in development for Phase 4, although the latter is arriving much later than originally planned due to Disney and Marvel not rushing with finding someone to fill James Gunn's directing shoes. Though he was introduced in the Fantastic Four comic book, Silver Surfer's had numerous solo adventures out in space that a movie could pull from, so he'd be a welcome addition to the MCU's cosmic realm.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for any news on if a Silver Surfer movie, whether or not it's helmed by Adam McKay, gets the green light. For now, check out our MCU movies guide to learn what else this superhero franchise has coming down the pipeline.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.