Ghost Rider reboot eyes a James Bond star
Marvel’s Ghost Rider is closing in on its female lead opposite Ryan Gosling, per new reports — and the pick, by the looks of it, would bring awards pedigree.
Marvel Studios clearly hasn't lost its appetite for big swings. With Avengers: Doomsday ramping up expectations and Spider-Man: Brand New Day smashing box office records, those hand-wringing days about the MCU 'losing steam' seem miles behind us. And right on cue, there's fresh noise about the next heavy hitter: Ghost Rider, coming in 2028, with Ryan Gosling in the saddle and Shawn Levy (the bloke behind Deadpool & Wolverine) calling the shots.
Ghost Rider is lined up to kick off MCU Phase 7 with a 2028 release.
The rumour mill is already whirring about who'll join Gosling for this hellfire reboot, and the latest name popping up is none other than Rosamund Pike. According to Jeff Sneider (yes, The Insneider himself), Marvel is eyeing her for the lead romantic role. If you've somehow missed Pike's career so far: she started off facing down Bond in Die Another Day before doing proper dramatic turns in Pride & Prejudice, Gone Girl, and more. She recently wrapped The Wheel of Time last year. Marvel's official lips are sealed—shock—but these things have a habit of seeping out sooner or later.
Who is Pike meant to play?
Here's where the speculation gets a bit knotty, as we don't even know which Ghost Rider Gosling is playing. The general assumption is he's tackling Johnny Blaze—the iconic version famously done by Nicolas Cage in those charmingly daft mid-2000s films. If that's the case, Pike's logical role would be Roxanne Simpson, Johnny's long-suffering love interest, who was last seen on screen played by, rather awkwardly, Gosling's real-life partner Eva Mendes. If you've ever fancied a proper meta casting story, this might be it. But, as with most things in Marvel world, nothing is actually confirmed.
Cohen as Mephisto (again)
Sneider's nuggets didn't stop with Pike. He also reckons Sacha Baron Cohen will return as Mephisto, Marvel's resident deal-with-the-devil baddie—though supposedly not as the headline villain this time. If you've been following, Cohen turned up as Mephisto in Ironheart, which popped up on Disney+ last June. In the comics, Mephisto's basically the reason Johnny Blaze gets all flamey-skull in the first place, so it'd be daft to leave him out entirely.
A debut in Secret Wars?
Some Marvel-watchers think we might see Gosling's Ghost Rider even before the standalone film. There's a rumour doing the rounds that he'll pop up in Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027, which would be a classic Marvel move—test the water, then set everything alight (possibly literally) in Phase 7. It's not confirmed, so treat it the same way you'd treat any Spider-Man leak: interesting, probably accurate, but officially unendorsed for now.
To sum it up: Marvel is going for broke with Ghost Rider. Gosling as the lead, Pike potentially alongside, Cohen bringing back Mephisto, and—if rumours pan out—a first taste of the new Spirit of Vengeance before the actual film drops. The MCU's supernatural phase looks anything but quiet.