Ryan Gosling Is Ghost Rider: Jonathan Tropper to Write

2 Minutes

Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con broke into cheers — not for a cameo, but for a full-throttle announcement: Ryan Gosling will play Johnny Blaze, and Jonathan Tropper is writing Marvel's next Ghost Rider.

Tropper is not a stranger to character-driven scripts. His previous work includes This Is Where I Leave You, Kodachrome, The Adam Project and The Wrecking Crew, and this year he’s added Matchbox and the eagerly anticipated Star Wars: Starfighter to his resume. Expect a screenplay that leans on emotional stakes as much as spectacle.

Directing duties fall to Shawn Levy, the filmmaker who steered Deadpool & Wolverine and has collaborated with Tropper before on The Adam Project and Star Wars: Starfighter. That creative shorthand matters. When a director and writer know each other's rhythm, the result is often sharper, stranger, and more surprising.

Ryan Gosling as Ghost Rider sounds like a curious, deliberate choice. The role has history — Nicolas Cage embodied Johnny Blaze in Sony’s 2007 and 2011 films, and Gabriel Luna brought a modern, televised edge in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — but this iteration will land inside Marvel’s larger cinematic world. Rumors that Gosling was circling the part have been floating for over a year; seeing the actor onstage in Hall H turned gossip into green light.

Marvel pegged the film for a 2028 release, giving Tropper and Levy time to shape tone and scale. Will this be a horror-tinged antihero story, a character study wrapped in flames, or something audaciously new? The pieces in place suggest a fusion: star power, a writer who excels at quiet emotional cores, and a director comfortable balancing comedy, heart, and action.

Expect a Ghost Rider that aims to feel familiar enough to honor the myth but fresh enough to make audiences sit up and take notice.

Whether you’re a long-time fan of the skull-and-bike or watching the character’s rebirth with fresh eyes, the coming years promise a different face of vengeance — and one that could reshape how Marvel approaches darker antiheroes.