Ryan Gosling to Star in Marvel’s Ghost Rider Movie
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- Ryan Gosling is cast as Ghost Rider in a new Marvel Studios standalone movie, announced by Kevin Feige onstage in Hall H at San Diego Comic Con, with a 2028 release date.
- Shawn Levy is set to direct the Ghost Rider film; Levy most recently directed and produced Marvel's "Deadpool & Wolverine" blockbuster and is directing Gosling in the upcoming "Star Wars: Starfighter," due May 28, 2027.
- Levy praised Gosling from the Hall H stage, saying "Gosling is the absolute shit" and confirming the partnership grew out of their "Starfighter" collaboration — "the opportunity as Ryan started talking about this character, I was like, 'Bro, let's ride.'"
- Gosling becomes the second actor to play the Spirit of Vengeance in a film, following Nicolas Cage, who starred in Sony's "Ghost Rider" (2007) and sequel "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" (2011) — both films receiving mostly negative reviews.
- Ghost Rider rights reverted to Marvel Studios, which previously reinvented the character as Robbie Reyes (played by Gabriel Luna) on ABC's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."; a Hulu standalone Reyes series was scrapped in 2019.
- Gosling is having a major year, coming off starring in "Project Hail Mary" and entering the Star Wars universe with "Starfighter" before suiting up as Ghost Rider in 2028.
Why it matters: Gosling becomes only the second film actor to wear the flaming skull, taking over a character whose rights cycled from Sony to Marvel after two poorly received Cage films and a scrapped Hulu reboot. Levy's track record on "Deadpool & Wolverine" — Marvel's biggest recent hit — signals the studio is pairing a bankable star-director duo with a horror-action IP it has never successfully launched in-house.
