Ryan Gosling Ghost Rider movie set for Marvel’s 2028 slate
Ryan Gosling will play Johnny Blaze in Marvel’s new Ghost Rider film, with Shawn Levy directing for a planned 2028 release.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Ryan Gosling Ghost Rider rumors have finally burned into something real: Marvel Studios has confirmed Gosling will play Johnny Blaze in a new Marvel Cinematic Universe film planned for 2028.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige brought Gosling out during the studio’s Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con, where the actor was introduced to the crowd as the MCU’s next Ghost Rider. The film will be directed by Shawn Levy, whose Marvel credits include Deadpool & Wolverine.
Who is Ryan Gosling playing in Ghost Rider?
Gosling is set to play Johnny Blaze, the stuntman who becomes Ghost Rider. In Marvel lore, Blaze sells his soul to the demon Mephisto to save his father’s life, and his soul is later bound to Zarathos, the Spirit of Vengeance.
That curse turns Blaze into the flaming-skulled rider associated with a leather jacket, a motorcycle and supernatural punishment for evildoers. The character is one of Marvel’s darker antiheroes, sitting closer to horror and occult fantasy than the brighter corners of the MCU.
The new film will be the first big-screen Ghost Rider project since Nicolas Cage played Johnny Blaze in 2007’s Ghost Rider and returned for the 2012 sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
Ghost Rider has also had a recent life on television. Gabriel Luna portrayed Robbie Reyes, a different version of the character, in the fourth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. That version was intended to continue in a solo series planned for 2020, but Deadline reported in 2019 that the Hulu project was dropped after a “creative impasse.”
What do we know about the new Ghost Rider movie?
Marvel has not revealed the plot for Ghost Rider. The confirmed details so far are Gosling as Johnny Blaze, Levy as director and a 2028 release window as part of the MCU’s upcoming slate.
Gosling and Levy already have another major franchise project together. The pair are working on Star Wars: Starfighter, which is due in May 2027, and reportedly used downtime on that production to trade ideas for a possible Ghost Rider movie.
The character’s connection to Mephisto may prove significant for the MCU, because Sacha Baron Cohen has already played Mephisto in Ironheart. Marvel has not announced whether Cohen will appear in Ghost Rider.
Feige’s Comic-Con presentation also included another 2028 MCU title: Black Panther III. Variety reported that David Jonsson, known for Alien: Romulus and Industry, will star as T’Challa II.
T’Challa II was introduced as a young boy in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The film revealed him as the son of Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa and Nakia, played by Lupita Nyong’o.
This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.