Anna Daniels
The minor critical and financial disasters of 2007’s Ghost Rider and its 2011 sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance have likely put Marvel Studios off of commissioning a version of its own for some time — at least, insofar as the silver screen. Enough people remember the previous films to generate a pretty terrible legacy for the entire brand. While neither of those were produced by Marvel Studios (they are relics of the bygone era of individual comic character adaptation films licensed by Marvel Entertainment), the casual moviegoing audience will likely not appreciate the corporate separation, and leap to a whole bunch of negative assumptions regarding any new big-screen adaptation of our rough-and-ready hellfire friend.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did feature Robbie Reyes’ Ghost Rider for a season with Gabriel Luna cast in the role, an interpretation which was quite well-received. Before The Great Marvel-Disney Merger, there were plans to spin that character off into his own series on Hulu with Luna continuing in a starring role, but alas, that is no more. All of this adds up to a whole bunch of complications in letting Johnny Blaze ride again, no matter how perennially cool leather-jacket-clad men damned by Mephistopheles and wielding magical chain whips might be (and they really are).
Written by: Looper
