The Fantastic Four's New Silver Surfer Resurrects An Old WandaVision Theory
The Fantastic Four's long-awaited Marvel Cinematic Universe debut received a fun surprise twist with the announcement that "Ozark's" Julie Garner is playing the movie's version of Silver Surfer, Shalla-Bal. Apart from the interesting narrative possibilities this relatively obscure character brings with her, the decision to go with Shalla-Bal might just resurrect a popular fan theory from the days of the first live-action Disney+ MCU show, "WandaVision." Yes, that popular fan theory. The Mephisto one.
Soon after "WandaVision" premiered, the show's increasingly strange events caused fans to suspect that Marvel's resident devil expy Mephisto is behind Wanda Maximoff's (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision's (Paul Bettany) sitcom-themed predicament. Ultimately, this isn't the case. Instead, Wanda's grief-fueled power is behind everything, with the witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) stirring the pot for good measure. However, it turns out that with the arrival of Shalla-Bal, "The Fantastic Four" has just as much potential for a Mephisto appearance as "WandaVision" initially seemed to have. In the comics, after all, Mephisto is a major Silver Surfer enemy who often specifically targets Shalla-Bal.
Perhaps even more importantly, "The Fantastic Four" and "WandaVision" have the very same helmsman, Matt Shakman. He didn't include Mephisto last time, so surely, it's only a matter of time before fans start wondering whether he's been saving that ace up his sleeve for the Fantastic Four movie. The demon has been known to clash with the quartet, so what's stopping Shakman and the MCU from cashing in the hype "WandaVision" created for the villain?
Could Mephisto be the Fantastic Four's first major antagonist?
From Galactus and Doctor Doom to even Mole Man, there are several Fantastic Four villains who come to mind before Mephisto. Still, in many ways, the demon would make far more sense as a starter villain for the MCU's new first family than those other guys.
As a blatantly obvious devil analogy, Mephisto would need barely any introduction for even the most casual viewers to understand his deal, allowing the movie to devote more time to the Fantastic Four themselves. With his hellish power set, he would also be a handy foil to all four members of the titular team. His dangerous minions would give the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bacrach) plenty of things to punch and his ruthless cunning could pose a challenge to Mr. Fantastic's (Pedro Pascal) intellect. Meanwhile, his stealthy trickery and association with the fire element would mirror the particular powers of the Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) and the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn).
It's worth noting that in the comics, Shalla-Bal's confrontation with Mephisto leads to a tricky conflict between the heroes and Doctor Doom. Should the MCU movie choose to follow a similar structure, the very news about Julie Garner's Shalla-Bal might stealthily spoil both Mephisto as the first "The Fantastic Four" movie's Big Bad, and the subsequent introduction of Doctor Doom in the sequel. If so, fans might really want to keep their eyes peeled for the post-credits scenes in this one.