News · Movies
Ryan Gosling Is Officially the MCU’s Ghost Rider
By Peter David · July 25, 2026 · Cobra Kai Never Lies
Marvel finally gave Ryan Gosling the flaming skull he has wanted for years, with Shawn Levy directing a new Ghost Rider movie for 2028.
Ryan Gosling has spent years telling anyone who would listen that he wanted to play Ghost Rider.
Marvel was listening!
Gosling appeared during Marvel Studios’ San Diego Comic-Con presentation to officially announce that he will lead a new Ghost Rider movie directed by Deadpool & Wolverine filmmaker Shawn Levy. The movie is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters sometime in 2028.
That makes Gosling the latest major actor to join the MCU at a time when Marvel seems determined to start making genuinely unpredictable casting choices again.
Gosling has already played astronauts, assassins, stuntmen, detectives and one deeply confused plastic boyfriend. A flaming supernatural biker who makes criminals relive every terrible thing they’ve ever done somehow feels like the logical next step.
Gosling and Levy have already worked together on the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter, so Marvel is putting its newest flaming skeleton in the hands of two people who already know how to work together. Levy also knows how to handle a Marvel character who needs violence, humor and a little more freedom than the standard MCU formula usually allows, and that experience could be important here.
Ghost Rider has never been a character who should feel clean, safe or carefully sanded down for everyone. He rides a motorcycle through Hell, turns into a burning skeleton and attacks people with chains. This is not the Marvel hero who should be worrying about whether his costume sells enough backpacks.
Marvel hasn’t confirmed whether Gosling will be playing Johnny Blaze, Danny Ketch or another version of the Spirit of Vengeance. For now, he is simply the MCU’s Ghost Rider.
Johnny Blaze is obviously the version most people will expect, especially after Nicolas Cage played him in the two earlier movies. Marvel could still surprise everyone, though, and the Ghost Rider mythology gives them plenty of room to introduce more than one Rider if this becomes another franchise.
The casting also completes a journey Gosling started publicly in 2022, when he named Ghost Rider as the Marvel character he actually wanted to play. Kevin Feige immediately liked the idea, and four years later, Gosling walked onto the Hall H stage and made it official.
After years of rumors, fake posters and questionable fan trailers, Marvel has finally given us something real.
Ryan Gosling is Ghost Rider!
Let’s ride.
