Ghost Rider Reboot: Gabriel Luna Says He Will Ride With Ryan Gosling if Marvel Calls

Gabriel Luna would put the flaming skull back on. The Agents of SHIELD actor says he is open to returning as Ghost Rider alongside Ryan Gosling, whose version of the character reaches cinemas on 28 July 2028 under director Shawn Levy.

Luna played Roberto “Robbie” Reyes in season 4 of Agents of SHIELD, which ran on ABC across 2016 and 2017, and he has been fielding the same question ever since. Asked in an interview with Polygon how he reacted to Marvel Studios announcing the new film at San Diego Comic-Con, he said he was excited about it and rates Levy.

“If they call, I’ll do it.”

— Gabriel Luna

He put a condition on it. Luna said ten years of fans asking eventually wore him down, that the story comes first, and that Robbie riding beside Gosling’s Ghost Rider only works if there is a reason for it. Without one, he is happy to watch. I will take that answer over the usual fan-service arithmetic, because the alternative is a cameo written backwards from a trailer beat.

He also has no inside information on which Ghost Rider Gosling is playing. Hollywood Reporter reported it is Johnny Blaze, the original. Luna’s own preference is Danny Ketch, the version who took over the mantle in the 1990s, and he said he plans to be front row either way.

Gosling was announced at Comic-Con in July, when Kevin Feige brought him out in Hall H after a planted question from journalist Josh Horowitz. The actor had been circling the part publicly since 2022 and confirmed earlier this year that talks were happening. Feige had already said he wanted to find a spot for him somewhere in the MCU.

“This is a character I’ve wanted to play for a very long time.”

— Ryan Gosling

Levy is directing from a script by Jonathan Tropper, who wrote Star Wars: Starfighter, the Levy film starring Gosling that arrives next year. Levy said the two of them worked the idea out on that set, riffing between takes until he told Gosling they should simply go and do it. The Hall H announcement landed loudly enough to stop the panel. Connor Storrie has been in talks to join the cast. It is Gosling’s first comic book role, after he was in the running for Green Lantern in the late 2000s.

The character goes back to Marvel Spotlight #5 in 1972, created by Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog as a stunt rider who sells himself to the devil to save his foster father and ends up bonded to a demon. Robbie Reyes arrived much later, in 2014’s All-New Ghost Rider, as the fifth character to carry the name. Columbia Pictures made two films with Nicolas Cage as Blaze, in 2007 and 2012, before the rights went back to Marvel in 2013, at which point the studio put Ghost Rider on television rather than back in cinemas. Gosling will be at least the fourth actor to play a version of him in live action, after Cage, Sam Elliott’s Carter Slade and Luna.

Agents of SHIELD spread the curse around more than most people remember, with Clark Gregg and Henry Simmons both briefly carrying the Spirit of Vengeance on that show. I rate Reyes as the most interesting thing Marvel television did with the property, which is a low bar and still true.

That history is why I am cautious about Levy. Deadpool & Wolverine proved he can run a crowd-pleaser full of guest stars, and this character works best when the film is frightened of him. A standalone 2028 release date and a writer coming off a Star Wars picture suggest Marvel wants scale rather than dread.

The practical read is that Luna has made himself available without campaigning. Marvel has a Blaze movie, a director who likes a full bench, and an actor from the television era who has publicly agreed to show up if the script earns it. Whether that turns into a scene or stays a nice quote depends on what Tropper writes.

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