Laurence Fishburne could be making a return to the role of the Silver Surfer

Could Laurence Fishburne be making a return to the role of the Silver Surfer, but for the MCU this time? Even just a month ago, this idea would have sounded pretty insane, but Disney recently purchased most of 21st Century Fox, which includes all of 20th Century Fox. Along with that, the rights to the Fantastic Four, X-Men and yes, Silver Surfer. So the idea of the character showing up in the MCU at some point isn't totally crazy. But will it happen and, more importantly, will it be Fishburne playing the part? A new theory suggests it's in the works.

The theory comes from Reddit user atxknicks and, in light of recent events, doesn't seem too far-fetched. We know that Laurence Fishburne is going to play Bill Foster/Goliath in Ant-Man and the Wasp. That's a done deal. But who's to say he couldn't also play Silver Surfer? Vin Diesel was going to play Black Bolt and Groot. In any case, here's how it was laid out on Reddit.

"Laurence Fishburne was cast as bill foster/Goliath for the upcoming ant man and the wasp. But during the interviews, he states he came to marvel with a project but they couldn't do it, he got cast as bill foster and then they came back to him with something big that will 'change the world.' At first, I thought he could just be talking about bill foster but in watching the interview, he is actually talking about ant-man and the wasp and people would figure out that he would be bill foster/goliath by his characters name so no need to be so secretive. I wonder when you put it in context of timing, this interview was a few weeks before the fox deal started to have rumours floating around. What if they approached him about becoming silver surfer again but for obvious reasons he can't talk about it."

That's certainly worth thinking about. This all stems from an interview with Laurence Fishburne from not too long ago. Just several weeks before the Disney/Fox deal really started looking like a reality. During the interview, he revealed that he had "something else" for Marvel Studios that wasn't possible because of "legal red tape." Did the Fox deal remove that red tape? Here's what Fishburne had to say about it in the interview at the time before the deal.

"I've got Black-Ish going on, I'm developing something else for Marvel that I can't talk about. It's gonna be really cool. It's gonna change the world, we hope (laughs). I went to Marvel and pitched them something that really couldn't work out, there was a lot of legal red tape that just [was] something they couldn't work out. But then they came back with the offer for Ant-Man and the Wasp and then they said, 'Hey, what do you think of this?' and I went 'Oh yeah that, yes!' so..."

Laurence Fishburne voiced Silver Surfer in the much-maligned Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Doug Jones actually played the character on screen, but Fishburne was who we heard. Now, if Marvel Studios were to bring Silver Surfer into the MCU, they would certainly not make any reference to that trainwreck of a movie, but Fishburne is a very talented actor. Why not give him another crack at it? For now, it's just a fun Reddit fan theory, but this deal with Disney and Fox opens up a big world of opportunity. So never say never.