Which Ghost Rider Is Ryan Gosling Playing in the MCU?

Danny Ketch

The next character to take up the Ghost Rider mantle was Daniel “Danny” Ketch, a teenager from Cypress Hills, New York, who debuted in 1990. While traveling to a graveyard alongside his sister Barbara, Danny wound up stumbling into a confrontation between rival gangs. Barbara was wounded in the crossfire, and while hiding with his unconscious sister, Danny discovered a motorcycle with a glowing gas cap. Upon touching it, he was imbued with the powers of the Ghost Rider and became the new Spirit of Vengeance. Barbara sadly didn’t survive after an encounter with the supernatural villain Blackout, who would become one of Danny’s greatest enemies.

Danny is a key possibility for the MCU because of his importance in the comics. Not only did his solo comic last longer than Johnny’s and was arguably more popular with readers, it also introduced crucial aspects of the Ghost Rider mythology, such as the Penance Stare, powerful villains like Blackout and Deathwatch, and the fact that the Rider’s power can be transferred to different individuals. But the biggest reason why we think Danny is on the MCU’s radar is because of the Ghost Rider and Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance comic, a series that featured Johnny and Danny working together. The pair would later be revealed as half-brothers and also serve as founding members of the Midnight Sons, a team of supernatural antiheroes who came together to battle Lilith, the Mother of Demons.

A Ghost Rider movie featuring Johnny and Danny as co-leads feels more likely than a solo origin film at this point in the MCU. Perhaps Gosling as Johnny will serve as the mentor figure to a younger actor playing Danny. And as Marvel prepares to establish a new saga after wrapping up the Multiverse Saga with Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, laying the groundwork for a Midnight Sons crossover movie could be the connecting thread of the next wave of MCU films.

Indeed, with the Blade solo movie reportedly dead, reports indicate that Feige and his team are developing a Midnight Sons movie featuring Mahershala Ali as the character instead. Could Gosling’s Ghost Rider movie be the first step to making that a reality?

What About Robbie Reyes? And Cosmic Ghost Rider?

Of course, the elephant in the room is that there technically already is a Ghost Rider in the MCU: Robbie Reyes, played by Gabriel Luna, who appeared on Agents of SHIELD. That show has been ignored by the wider MCU (unfairly, in my opinion), but it did happen. Season 4 featured a brief appearance from Johnny Blaze, who passed on the Spirit of Vengeance to Robbie. Robbie went on to become a supporting character in the show. Is this event going to be retconned by the new film? Or will Robbie be acknowledged in some capacity?

The most likely outcome is that Secret Wars pulling a “reset” on the MCU timeline will allow Marvel to do whatever they please with Ghost Rider regardless of the show’s events, but given that Robbie is one of the few Latino superheroes in the Marvel universe, I believe it’s a mistake to throw him out entirely.

And lastly, there’s Cosmic Ghost Rider. Now, this is almost certainly not the protagonist of the new film, but he’s worth a mention for how weird he is. Cosmic Ghost Rider is actually a variant of Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, who made a deal with Mephisto after his death and was later granted cosmic power by Galactus. Instead of fighting a war on criminals, Cosmic Ghost Rider’s mission was to avenge the murder of everyone on Earth by his universe’s version of Thanos. He would later cross between realities and meet characters from the 616 universe. As hilarious as it would be to see Ryan Gosling in Cosmic Ghost Rider’s costume (and how mad Jon Bernthal would presumably be), we’re fairly sure this particular hero isn’t riding into the MCU anytime soon. But who knows? Maybe by Phase 15, we’ll get to see Space Frank Castle in action.

Who do you want to see as Ghost Rider in the MCU? Let us know in the comments and vote in our poll!