It's an exciting time for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as San Diego Comic-Con brought a ton of surprising announcements about upcoming Marvel movies. Case in point: Ryan Gosling's casting as Ghost Rider. His wife (and Ghost Rider alum) Eva Mendes knew he'd be the perfect fit, and Kevin Feige spoke to CinemaBlend about what took the La La Land actor so long to join the MCU.
Moviegoers who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order have seen countless celebrities appear in the shared universe, but it took 10 years and change for Ryan Gosling to get in on the fun. CinemaBlend's Jeff McCobb asked Feige at San Diego Comic-Con why it took so many years to finally bring the Barbie actor into the family. He responded with:
I mean, he was he was busy continuing to do great, banger after banger. And we knew we wanted- if he wanted to do it, we wanted to do it with him. And it wasn't until not that long ago that he came in with this pitch, with this vision and with Shawn [Levy], and we said, 'Let's go for it. Now's the time.'
Points were made. Ryan Gosling has been working non-stop lately, and has been involved in a series of mega hits. In just the past few years there was Barbie (which is streaming with an HBO Max subscription), as well as The Fall Guy, Project Hail Mary, and the upcoming Star Wars movie Starfighter. The latter project was directed by Shawn Levy, who is the same filmmaker behind the developing Ghost Rider film.
Feige's above comments directly reference Levy, who also directed the record-breaking movie Deadpool & Wolverine. It sounds like both the filmmaking and the timing was right for Gosling, as Kevin Feige went on to say:
Because he wants to do it, and he's ready and wants to make this next movie.
And just like that, the Notebook icon booked his own movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The internet has had a field day over Gosling's Ghost Rider casting, and it should be fascinating to see how the blockbuster's director and star bring the supernatural character to life on the big screen.
You can check out Kevin Feige's conversation with CinemaBlend about Gosling below:
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Ghost Rider has been adapted for film various times over the years, so the pressure is on for the MCU to deliver. Perhaps the most famous is Nicolas Cage's pair of movies, which also starred Eva Mendes as Roxanne Simpson. Gabriel Luna also played the Robbie Reyes version of the character in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
The new Ghost Rider movie is expected to arrive sometime in 2028. While we wait, the next MCU movie hitting theaters in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18th as part of the 2026 movie release list.
