MCU's Fantastic Four Nearly Unleashed the Golden Surfer
Newly surfaced concept art from The Fantastic Four: First Steps reveals Marvel nearly swapped the Silver Surfer’s chrome for gleaming gold, with early Shalla-Bal designs charting a bold new look for the MCU.
File this under: almost but not quite. Marvel toyed with turning the Silver Surfer gold in The Fantastic Four. Yes, gold. And there are receipts.
So... the Golden Surfer?
New concept art from The Fantastic Four: First Steps shows that Marvel Studios briefly kicked around a dramatic visual pivot for its Silver Surfer, Shalla-Bal. The Artbook Collector shared early designs on X, revealing a run of explorations where the Surfer loses the classic chrome and goes full gilded.
This wasn’t just a color swap for the sake of it, either. The early look was partially inspired by Frankie Raye — better known in Marvel comics as Nova — which clearly influenced the hair and energy trails they were playing with.
"Maybe there’s some kind of oxidation going on. Maybe she turns gold, or if you look at the exhaust pipes on a motorcycle, they change colors because of the heat, which I thought would look cool."
— concept illustrator Jana Schirmer, in The Fantastic Four: First Steps – The Art of the Movie
What the art team explored
- Shalla-Bal’s silver skin shifting to a golden sheen, tied to power effects and heat discoloration
- Alternate hairstyles and an energy trail that nod directly to Frankie Raye/Nova
- A broader question from Jana Schirmer about whether the Surfer’s abilities could visibly alter her appearance mid-flight
The Artbook Collector posted the images on December 2, 2025, and even included US and UK purchase links for the art-of book. Additional context in The Fantastic Four: First Steps – The Art of the Movie (surfaced via Comic Book Movie) lays out Schirmer’s thinking and the Nova-inspired tweaks.
Why Frankie Raye matters here
In the comics, Frankie Raye starts out as Johnny Storm’s girlfriend, develops Human Torch-style powers of her own, signs up with Galactus as his herald, and later gets romantically entangled with the Silver Surfer. So if you’re seeing hints of fiery trails and different hair in those early Surfer mockups, that lineage tracks.
How fans took it, and what’s next
When Marvel first said the movie would introduce a female Silver Surfer, the reaction was, let’s say, mixed. The finished version of Shalla-Bal, though, ended up winning people over. As for when we’ll see Shalla-Bal or Galactus again in the MCU, Marvel isn’t saying yet.
The concept art surfaced via The Artbook Collector, with the story originally reported by Disheeta Maheshwari on SuperHeroHype and later picked up by ComingSoon.