Marvel Studios ended years of speculation at its Hall H panel on Saturday night. Kevin Feige joked that he has spent a long time fielding questions about when Ghost Rider and Ryan Gosling might arrive in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then brought the actor out to confirm both at once. Gosling will play Johnny Blaze in a standalone Ghost Rider film directed by Shawn Levy, arriving in theaters in 2028.
“Wow, is this really happening?” Gosling asked the crowd as it erupted. He told the audience that Ghost Rider is a character he has wanted to play for a very long time, then said only one director could bring it to the screen and welcomed Levy onto the stage.
The Starfighter Team Is Reuniting
This is not a new pairing. Gosling and Levy are already working together on Star Wars: Starfighter, which reaches theaters on May 28, 2027, and Levy told the Hall H crowd that the two of them spent their downtime on that set daydreaming about Ghost Rider and trading ideas. As Levy described it, Gosling began talking through his vision for the character, the pair started riffing, and Levy finally told him, “Bro, let’s ride.” Jonathan Tropper, who wrote the Starfighter screenplay, is writing Ghost Rider as well, which puts the same three creative leads on back to back tentpoles.
Feige has separately said that the actor did not simply get an offer. Gosling approached Marvel with a specific take drawn from particular comic runs, and Feige described him as a genuine student of the source material. Marvel has not narrowed the release beyond 2028, and Levy previously directed Deadpool and Wolverine for the studio, which remains the highest grossing R-rated release in history.
A Character With A Complicated Screen History
Ghost Rider has been away from the big screen for well over a decade. Nicolas Cage played Johnny Blaze in 2007’s Ghost Rider and the 2011 follow-up Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, neither of which landed with critics or audiences, and the rights eventually reverted from Sony Pictures to Marvel Studios. Gabriel Luna later played the Robbie Reyes version of the character on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from 2016 to 2017. Gosling becomes the third actor to take the role on screen.
There is a small family footnote to the casting. Eva Mendes, Gosling’s longtime partner, played Blaze’s love interest Roxanne Simpson opposite Cage in the 2007 film. The character himself dates back to Marvel Spotlight #5 in 1972, created by Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog.
The reaction from Gosling’s future colleagues was immediate. Simu Liu, who worked with him on Barbie, joked that he plans to welcome Gosling to the MCU with a beach-off and called his current run of roles generational. Robert Downey Jr. had a more specific request, saying he wants to see Gosling’s Ghost Rider share a motorcycle and sidecar with Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir.
The announcement lands exactly where Feige suggested it might. Ahead of the convention the Marvel Studios boss promised surprises for the Hall H presentation, and the studio delivered two new films alongside its Avengers: Doomsday footage. The full announcement is available at Marvel.
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