Ryan Gosling is Marvel Studios’ new Ghost Rider; Shawn Levy directing, 2028 release
At Comic-Con’s Hall H, Marvel Studios confirmed a new film built around a fan‑favourite antihero, with its A‑list lead and director now officially on board.
It is official: after years of wishful thinking and wild online chatter, Ryan Gosling is going to be the MCU's Johnny Blaze. Yes, that is Ghost Rider, the bloke with the charred skull on fire and a penchant for swinging chains about. This long-standing rumour finally got a torch lit under it at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, when Marvel Studios pulled the curtain back during their Hall H panel. Gosling will be teaming up with Shawn Levy, the man currently riding high with Deadpool & Wolverine, who has signed on to direct. The film’s set to hit cinemas in 2028 – so a fair few years left for speculation, memes, and fan art to flood our timelines.
We’ll keep hope alive. Some discussions have been had. It’s a complicated situation.
This quote from Gosling came earlier this year on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, when he was asked about the persistent rumours swirling around him as Ghost Rider. At that point, he kept schtum about any concrete offers but wasn’t exactly pouring cold water on fan hopes, either. Now we know those “complicated” chats resulted in a deal, and yes, we can stop pretending this is some fever dream cooked up by Twitter “insiders”.
How We Got Here
For a bit of perspective: Ghost Rider was last tried as a cinema franchise back in 2007, headlined by none other than Nicolas Cage doing what I’d call a vintage Cage performance. That first outing, directed by Mark Steven Johnson, also starred Eva Mendes and Sam Elliott, but was hardly a critical darling. It landed the same year as Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer so, honestly, it blended right into a generally dire patch for superhero movies—let’s not pretend it was a golden age.
They even rolled out a sequel in 2011 – Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance – with Cage back in the saddle but the directors from the delightfully unhinged ‘Crank’ films running the show. If you thought the first one was a bit much, the second makes the first look like The English Patient. That was effectively the death knell for Ghost Rider’s big screen adventures until now.
Different Riders, Different Times
Fans did get a new Ghost Rider in 2016 when Gabriel Luna played Robbie Reyes for a season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but that stayed firmly on the small screen. Luna’s take was a hit with the series’ diehards, but for whatever reason, he only lasted one series.
- Ryan Gosling as Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider) – in cinemas 2028
- Shawn Levy directing (fresh from Deadpool & Wolverine)
- Previous Ghost Rider outings: Nicolas Cage (2007, 2011); Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes (TV, 2016)
With Gosling now locked in and Shawn Levy behind the camera, Marvel are giving Ghost Rider another crack at making him as big as their more squeaky-clean superheroes. Details on the rest of the cast, plot, or how this flaming vigilante fits into the ever-stranger MCU jigsaw are still under wraps. But it is happening, and that alone is enough to get Ghost Rider fans revving their engines nearly two decades after the last one flamed out.