Disney Plus is adding another of Fox’s Marvel movies this week.
Slowly but surely, the Mouse House’s streaming service is gradually getting the rights to every film based on a Marvel comic. A deal with Sony is now in place to host the Spider-Man franchise, and in the meantime, more of those that they’ve inherited from Fox are making their way to the platform. Case in point: 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer will be available on D+ in the United States from Friday, May 7th.
A follow-up to the 2005 origins story for the First Family of the Marvel universe, this sequel brought back Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis as Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, not to mention Julian McMahon as their nemesis, Victor Von Doom. As the title proudly states, the big addition was Norrin Radd, the eponymous Silver Surfer, as voiced by Laurence Fishburne and physically performed by Doug Jones.
While Reed and Sue are preparing for their wedding, the Four are tasked by the government to find the source of a powerful cosmic radiation that’s threatening to alter the Earth on a molecular level. The Surfer has come to our world as a herald for his boss, the planet-eating Galactus, and the only way to save humanity is for the quartet and Radd to team up against the incoming apocalyptic force.
ROTSS is infamous in the superhero fandom for its awful take on Galactus, but to be fair, everything else about it’s probably a slight improvement on its predecessor. The cast had settled into their roles and the Surfer himself is portrayed pretty accurately and with some gravitas. In fact, it’s a shame we never got that planned spinoff film.
With any luck, Marvel will be bringing the character back to our screens soon. But in the meantime, be sure to catch Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer on Disney Plus this coming Friday.