UPDATE: Cosmic Book News has exclusively learned Keanu Reeves was also up to play Ghost Rider before Gosling landed the role, per a Hollywood VFX source at Comic-Con.
It’s official: Ryan Gosling is Ghost Rider.
Gosling surprised the crowd at Marvel’s Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday night, where Marvel confirmed his casting along with Shawn Levy directing and a 2028 release for the movie.
The reveal caps a day that played out exactly the way it was scripted to: the casting report leaked Saturday afternoon via DanielRPK, a motorcycle was spotted being carted into the back of the convention center with its engine revving before the panel, and then Gosling walked out to 7,000 fans wearing Doctor Doom masks.
Two Years In The Making
Gosling manifested this one himself. He first said he wanted to play Ghost Rider back in 2024 while promoting The Fall Guy, Josh Horowitz relayed it to Kevin Feige, and Feige responded that he’d love to find a place for him in the MCU. Meetings and talks followed, which Gosling confirmed himself during the Project Hail Mary press run.
Two years later, it’s real, and the fan-favorite campaign from Norman Reedus ends here. And per Feige’s post-panel interviews, Marvel is letting Gosling steer the project’s creative direction himself, down to which Ghost Rider he’s playing.
The Levy-Gosling Empire
Here’s the part that makes this bigger than one casting: Shawn Levy is already directing Gosling in Star Wars: Starfighter, and as Cosmic Book News exclusively reported from the Comic-Con floor, Gosling is heavily involved with that movie in a Ryan Reynolds-with-Deadpool way.
Now the same duo is reteaming for Ghost Rider. Levy and Gosling will deliver a Star Wars movie in 2027 and a Marvel movie in 2028, back to back. No director-star pairing has ever held both franchises at once, and Levy, coming off Deadpool & Wolverine’s $1.3 billion, is now the busiest man in blockbusters.
The 2028 release also slots Ghost Rider into Marvel’s post-Secret Wars universe, where the character already appears in the Avengers: Doomsday plot leak, suggesting Gosling’s debut may come even sooner than his solo movie.
Ghost Rider hits theaters in 2028. Follow our live Hall H coverage for everything else announced tonight.
