Highlights
- Ryan Gosling confirmed as Ghost Rider in new Marvel movie, out in 2028.
- Shawn Levy directs; the pair are also teaming on “Star Wars: Starfighter.”
- Gosling once joked his partner Eva Mendes beat him to the franchise.
Ryan Gosling has officially traded rom-com charm for hellfire and chrome. Marvel Studios confirmed Saturday that the Oscar nominee will suit up as Ghost Rider in a standalone movie, ending years of will-he-won’t-he speculation with a literal blaze of glory.
The announcement dropped during Marvel’s Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where Kevin Feige brought Gosling onstage to raucous cheers. The crowd’s reaction pretty much summed up the internet’s mood too.
“Wow, is this really happening?” Gosling asked the audience, apparently still processing his own casting news in real time.
Turns out, the actor has been manifesting this role for a while. Gosling first floated the idea back in 2022, and Feige was reportedly all in from the jump. Fast forward to now, and the “Barbie” star gets to swap his Kenergy for a flaming skull.
Shawn Levy, fresh off directing Deadpool & Wolverine, will helm the new Ghost Rider movie, with Jonathan Tropper penning the script. The pair are already working with Gosling on Star Wars: Starfighter, out May 28, 2027, and apparently used their downtime on that set to cook up superhero plans.
“Bro, let’s ride,” Levy recalled telling Gosling, because apparently that’s how Marvel movies get greenlit these days.
Ryan Gosling is GHOST RIDER. Movie coming in 2028 to be directed by Shawn Levy. Hall H losing its mind. pic.twitter.com/xQ76QUrB8y
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) July 26, 2026Levy didn’t hold back on the praise train either, calling his leading man “the absolute shit” before quickly clarifying he meant it with “tremendous respect.” Hollywood.
The Ghost Rider movie is slated for a 2028 release, making Gosling the second actor to bring Johnny Blaze to the big screen after Nicolas Cage rode the character through two Sony films in 2007 and 2011. Gabriel Luna also played a different iteration, Robbie Reyes, on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Fittingly, Gosling’s longtime partner Eva Mendes co-starred in the original 2007 Ghost Rider alongside Cage, which makes this casting feel less like a coincidence and more like the universe finally closing a loop.
Gosling himself seemed to find the timing amusing. Discussing the possibility earlier this year, he kept things characteristically coy.
“Some discussions have been had. It’s a complicated situation,” he said at the time, though he clearly kept hope alive.
He also couldn’t resist a dig at his own family history with the franchise, joking about Mendes’ connection to the original film: “I’m just happy one of us got to do it.”
Now, with the movie officially locked in, Gosling will spend 2028 setting theaters on fire, quite literally. Whether the demon-possessed stunt driver aesthetic suits the La La Land leading man remains to be seen, but if his Ken performance taught us anything, it’s that Gosling can commit to a bit.
