Doug Jones has brought to life all manner of incredible and iconic characters in projects like Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, Hocus Pocus, and What We Do in the Shadows. However, for Marvel fans, his portrayal of the Silver Surfer in 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer remains a clear favourite.
While The Matrix star Laurence Fishburne lent his voice to Norrin Radd in post-production, Jones played the Surfer on set and was responsible for bringing the iconic character to life on screen.
Last summer, Marvel Studios rebooted Marvel's First Family with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. The movie was set on a parallel Earth and, in place of Norrin Radd, the spotlight was placed on Shalla-Bal as Galactus' Herald.
We'd seen a female Silver Surfer in the pages of Earth X, but that did nothing to stop the expected backlash from some fans; even though Shalla-Bal is a completely different character, Marvel was still accused of "gender-swapping" the Silver Surfer, a completely inaccurate claim.
Earlier this week, we sat down with Jones to discuss his role in the riotously funny new comedy, Operation Taco Gary's. During our conversation, we wondered what he thought about Julie Garner's interpretation of the Earth-828's Silver Surfer.
"When I got to play the Silver Surfer back in those original Fantastic Four movies, it was [such] an honor. Are you kidding me? To take on a Marvel character that was so beloved and so beautiful and so angelic-like. Then, to jump ahead to the present, when the new Fantastic Four came out in theaters, [Marvel Studios] reached out to all of us legacy actors from the original and invited us all to come to the premiere. So, I know that Ioan Gruffudd and I both came and saw each other at the premiere. I was able to do the whole press line and, they were very respectful, and it was a nice connection of old and new."
"I thought Julia Garner did such a gorgeous job. And it was nice, and it was interesting to see the female Silver Surfer based on Shalla-Bal, the character from the comic books. There was some fan scuttle about that because Norrin Radd was the more seen and more known Silver Surfer, but Shalla-Bal was an alternate universe Surfer from like one issue of the comic book. So, she did have some source material to base her on. So I thought it was brave of her to step into that, knowing that fans were going to be like, 'Wait a second.' But she was great and did it with great poise and great courage."
Ultimately, the response to Garner's Silver Surfer was extremely positive. Given how Shalla-Bal's story ended, it's likely that she was a one-and-done character in the MCU, particularly if the Fantastic Four is ultimately brought to Earth-616.
When that happens, we expect to meet a new take on Norrin Radd. Would Jones be open to playing him? Well, you can hear more from the prolific actor on that in the player above.
Operation Taco Gary's opens in theaters on February 27.