Ryan Gosling was officially confirmed as the MCU’s Ghost Rider today during Marvel Studios’ Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, with Kevin Feige delivering the announcement in person.
Gosling first publicly declared his interest in playing Ghost Rider back in 2022, and Kevin Feige responded at the time with what amounted to an open invitation. Now, after four years of fan campaigns, interview questions, and collective desperate hoping later, here we are.
Just announced in Hall H:
Ryan Gosling joins the MCU in Marvel Studios' Ghost Rider, directed by Shawn Levy. Only in theaters 2028. #SDCC pic.twitter.com/WpmwsylkjR
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) July 26, 2026
Gosling took the Hall H stage and addressed the crowd directly, saying “Wow. Is this really happening? As you know, this is a character I’ve wanted to play for a very long time.” The man has been publicly courting this role for years, doing the kind of press tour campaigning that actors are not technically supposed to do but absolutely do anyway, and it paid off in the most dramatic venue possible.
Ryan Gosling confirmed for Ghost Rider and Shawn Levy directing | Marvel Hall H Comic-Con
Will release in 2028 pic.twitter.com/OgjylYd7zf
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) July 26, 2026
Shawn Levy, who directed Deadpool and Wolverine and is already working with Gosling on the upcoming Star Wars film Starfighter, will direct the standalone Ghost Rider movie, which is slated for a 2028 release. Levy summed up the collaboration by saying the two spent a lot of time together on Starfighter, started riffing on Gosling’s vision for the character, and eventually Levy told him they needed to make this happen.
The most famous previous cinematic Ghost Rider was played by Nicolas Cage across two films, and the character was also portrayed by Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes in Season 4 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., though that version never became properly canon within the MCU. Luna was also set to reprise the role in a standalone Hulu series before that project was cancelled in 2019.
Gosling’s Ghost Rider is now considered one of the first officially confirmed entries in Marvel’s Phase 7 slate, and speculation is already running hot about whether the character could appear in one of the remaining Avengers films ahead of his solo debut, with the Midnight Sons team up that fans have been requesting for years suddenly looking considerably more possible.
Ryan Gosling is Ghost Rider. We are going to be thinking about this for a while.
