Adam McKay wants to do a Silver Surfer movie, make it the "Speed Racer" of MCU films
With an eye toward going from directing chunky supervillains to sleek, shiny heroes, Vice director Adam McKay has decided to The Secret his ideal superhero project out into the universe (where it will then presumably be subjected to THE ALMIGHTY ENERGIES OF THE POWER COSMIC). Which is to say, McKay’s idly looking to get himself a Marvel movie of his own, based around iconic Jack Kirby creation The Silver Surfer.
McKay—who co-wrote Ant-Man, giving him a pint-sized foothold into the MCU—talked about his cosmic comic aspirations during a recent appearance on MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast. Per THR, he suggested that he’d want to make the movie a visual spectacle that’d be the MCU’s equivalent of Speed Racer, a concept that presumably sent Kevin Feige and company sprinting to the phones to secure such an overflowing box office bounty.
But we kid McKay and his appreciation for candy-colored, beautiful, high-speed nonsense in which John Goodman dismisses a ninja by saying “More like non-jas.” The Silver Surfer—real name Norrin Radd, a moniker that looks like it should have some great anagram potential, but doesn’t—is certainly a visually engaging character, having literally been designed, per an anecdote from the late Stan Lee, because Kirby was sick to death of drawing spaceships all the damn time.
Also, he might actually be coming into MCU availability soon; although the character’s tied up in the Fantastic Four properties—having made his Laurence Fishburne-voiced film debut in 2007's Rise Of The Silver Surfer—the long-simmering Fox-Disney merger would free up those rights for the company’s wider cinematic plans. (It would also free up his boss, planetary-level threat Galactus, which we have to assume is a tempting notion for Marvel planners figuring out what to do in a post-Thanos world.)
Anyway, this is all just idle “wouldn’t it be nice”-ing, but it’s worth noting that McKay very nearly directed a Marvel movie in the past; he was in talks to helm Ant-Man after Edgar Wright was booted from the project several years back, but ultimately backed out out of respect for his friend.