Ryan Gosling walked onto the Hall H stage at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday and announced himself as Marvel's next Ghost Rider. The film, directed by Shawn Levy, is set for 2028.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige made the announcement during Saturday's panel. Gosling appeared in person. "As you know, this is a character I've wanted to play for a very long time," he told the crowd, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The character is Johnny Blaze, a stunt motorcyclist bonded with the demon Zarathos, created by Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog and first appearing in Marvel Spotlight No. 5 in 1972.
Levy and Gosling are continuing a working relationship that began on Star Wars: Starfighter, scheduled for 2027. Levy previously directed Deadpool & Wolverine for Marvel and will now take on something tonally different. Ghost Rider exists at the edge of the MCU's register. Blaze is bound to damnation, not duty. The character has never found its footing on screen. Nicolas Cage played him in 2007 and again in 2011. Gabriel Luna played a version in Agents of SHIELD. Neither took hold. "Gosling is the absolute shit," Levy told the Hall H crowd. "I say that with tremendous respect."
Ghost Rider is the rare Marvel property that leans toward horror. What Levy does with that, and whether Gosling brings the same precision he applies to prestige work, is the question 2028 will answer.
