Ghost Rider is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but is it a Disney+ series or a feature film?
Ghost Rider has gone through a lot of changes throughout these last few years. Whether you’re looking at Frank Castle’s Cosmic Ghost Rider (comics), Gabriel Luna’s Robbie Reyes (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), or Nicholas Cage’s Johnny Blaze. Ghost Rider has been a central topic within the Marvel fandom for the past decade. Back in 2013, Marvel regained the character rights for Ghost Rider, both film and television.
Marvel is known for wanting to do things differently after things were done with their respective characters prior to the rights to those characters revert back to them. Nicholas Cage’s Ghost Rider was no exception. Which saw Marvel Television, which at the time was spearheaded by the former head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb. In doing so, we got the live-action debut of Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider, portrayed by Gabriel Luna in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the entirety of Season 3, then for a short while in Season 4.
Luna’s portrayal of Robbie Reyes was well received and with many fans rallying behind Gabriel and the reignited love for Ghost Rider, fans were eager to see Luna on a bigger platform. Most notably a feature film on the big screen and permanent place within the MCU. Now it can be debated whether or not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is canonically part of the broader MCU or not but that’s a topic for another day.
Exactly one year ago, it was announced that a live-action Ghost Rider series was in the works and will be exclusively streaming on Hulu, with Gabriel Luna reprising his role as Robbie Reyes. In a deal that was similar to what Marvel Television had with Netflix. Four shows were announced (that’s including Ghost Rider) and the fourth series would culminate in the assembling of The Spirits of Vengeance. Unfortunately, due to Kevin Feige’s promotion which now has him running all of Marvel Entertainment. All of these shows were scrapped with the exception of Helstrom. Leaving Luna up in limbo.
After Feige’s promotion, it was heavily speculated that Feige wanted to go a different direction with Ghost Rider. Feige wanted him on the big screen due to having much bigger plans with the character. Essentially wanting to make him a prominent figure in the future of the MCU. Which is great, of course.
Now, according to scooper Daniel Richtman, via The Direct, Marvel Studios is developing SOMETHING pertaining to Ghost Rider. It is not known whether or not this development will lead to a Disney+ series or a feature film, but something is indeed in the works. The next bit might upset some fans. According to this same report, Marvel Studios is not looking to do anything with Robbie Reyes. Now the main question is are we going with Johnny Blaze or Frank Castle’s Cosmic Ghost Rider? I think we can all safely assume its the former, rather than the latter.
With Kevin Feige reportedly wanting to keep Jon Bernthal around as Frank Castle/The Punisher once Marvel Studios is able to use the character, the possibility is there but I still feel like it would be a bit of a stretch seeing Marvel go that route. I’m personally leaning more onto the Johnny Blaze side of things. Where Marvel can bring in a character who has live-action material from the past but bring him in and reignite the flame, just like they did with Spider-Man when he made his MCU debut.
I want to hear your thoughts. Let’s speculate together. Let me know what you all think over on Twitter or on Instagram.
Source: The Direct
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