The Spirit of Vengeance is going back to the big screen.
During yesterday's Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Marvel Studios confirmed rumors that Ryan Gosling will star in a new Ghost Rider film slated for 2028. The film will be directed by Shawn Levy and written by Jonathan Tropper, who worked with Gosling on the 2027 Disney film Star Wars: Starfighter.
Gosling, 45, is a Canadian actor nominated for three Academy Awards and winner of a Golden Globe award. His films include Blade Runner 2049, Project Hail Mary, Barbie, The Fall Guy (2024), La La Land, Drive, Remember the Titans, and The Notebook.
Losing his mother caused Johnny to repress many of his memories of her and his siblings. When his father died in a stunt, Johnny was adopted by Crash and Mona Simpson. The Simpsons helped Johnny by fabricating his past with the hope that it would be less painful than the truth. Now believing that his real mother was Clara Blaze, who had died, Johnny became an enthusiastic member of the Simpson clan, growing closer to their daughter, Roxanne. The two soon became inseparable and, as they grew older, their fondness for one another moved beyond familial.
Blaze would eventually join the Simpsons in their own traveling stunt show, the Crash Simpson Stunt Cycle Extravaganza. Crash had become a father figure for Blaze and, on learning of Crash's life-threatening cancer, Blaze turned to the occult. His studies led him to a spell which supposedly could summon Satan himself. Johnny was unaware that he had, in fact, summoned Mephisto. Desperate to save Crash, Blaze sold his soul to Mephisto in return for Crash's cancer to be cured.
Crash Simpson's cancer was cured, but he was subsequently killed in a stunt trying to jump over 22 cars. Mephisto, when confronted by Blaze over Crash's death, declared that he had kept his end of the bargain. Johnny's exact words in the bargain had been for Crash to be spared the cancer which was killing him, not for him to live. Blaze was saved by Roxanne when she proclaimed her love for Blaze, driving Mephisto away with the purity of her emotion.
Blaze was unaware that Mephisto had bonded him with the demon Zarathos as an act of revenge, and was transformed into a Ghost Rider, a leather-clad skeleton with a flaming head. While Johnny still had his soul, he was forced to punish the wicked and evil upon Mephisto's demands whenever needed. Whenever he was in the presence of evil he would transform into the Ghost Rider, to exact the devil's revenge, returning the evil to Hell. Blaze was not completely lost in the transformation however, and would also help the innocent when they were in danger.
Eventually, Zarathos gained control of Johnny Blaze and the Ghost Rider became the spirit of Zarathos unleashed. Johnny himself was becoming stronger as well, and the conflicting personalities led to a battle over Blaze's physical body. A man called Centurious appeared, trapping Blaze's soul in his soul crystal. Zarathos, weakened from the ordeal used the last of his strength to shatter the crystal, freeing Blaze's soul and many others contained inside of the crystal. Before the crystal was reformed, Centurious was absorbed into the crystal. Zarathos followed him into the crystal, freeing Blaze from the curse, restoring his soul and ending his time as the Ghost Rider.
Gosling will be the second actor to portray the Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider on screen, after Nicolas Cage in the 2007 film Ghost Rider and the 2011 sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. The character also appeared in an episode of the animated series Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
Ghost Rider is scheduled to arrive in theaters sometime in 2028.
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