Marvel Studios is finally bringing Ghost Rider back to the big screen, with Ryan Gosling set to star in a 2028 film directed by Shawn Levy. After many years of waiting for another theatrical adventure, fans have every reason to be excited… but they should also hope Marvel takes a careful look at the franchise’s past. The previous two Ghost Rider movies starring Nicolas Cage are often lumped together as failed comic book adaptations, but that’s an oversimplification. The truth is that each movie stumbled for very different reasons.
The 2007 Ghost Rider understood the character very well but didn’t always execute its ideas successfully. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance improved a few of those execution problems, then got the character wrong. Taken together, they provide a blueprint for what Marvel should and shouldn’t do with Ryan Gosling’s Ghost Rider.
Despite its mixed reputation, 2007’s Ghost Rider got several of the most important things exactly right. Most importantly, it nailed Johnny Blaze’s tragedy.
Rather than following the comics beat-for-beat, writer/director Mark Steven Johnson wisely streamlined Johnny’s origin. Instead of adapting the more convoluted storyline involving surrogate father Crash Simpson and Johnny’s dabbling in Satanism, the film condensed the emotional core into a single heartbreaking decision: a teenage Johnny sells his soul to the devilish Mephistopheles in a desperate attempt to save his own dying father, just to watch him die anyway. His father’s terminal cancer is cured, but he’s immediately killed in a motorcycle stunt accident.
It’s one of those rare cases where simplifying the source material actually strengthens the story. Johnny immediately becomes a sympathetic protagonist whose greatest mistake came from love rather than ambition.
Whenever people revisit the original movie, Nicolas Cage‘s eccentric performance is usually the first thing they mention. He pounds jelly beans instead of alcohol. He relaxes by watching animal documentaries. He listens to The Carpenters. This Johnny Blaze isn’t a wisecracking superhero. He’s a man convinced the devil owns his soul and could come to collect at any moment. He struggles to convince himself that every death-defying motorcycle stunt he pulls off is the result of his own skill rather than infernal intervention. Cage commits completely to the role, giving Johnny Blaze a distinct personality.
The first film also understood that Ghost Rider is much more than a guy with a flaming skull. The opening narration establishes that every generation has its own Ghost Rider, cursed to carry out the devil’s bargains. Sam Elliott’s Carter Slade introduces audiences to the Old West Ghost Rider, expanding the mythology while paying tribute to the character’s comic book history.
The movie blends multiple eras of Ghost Rider comics. Although Johnny Blaze is the host, this version of Ghost Rider borrows heavily from comic book successor Danny Ketch’s mythology and style. He protects innocent people instead of simply serving Hell. He punishes the wicked through the Penance Stare. His role becomes that of a supernatural force of justice rather than merely the devil’s bounty hunter. It’s a good combination of Marvel’s different Ghost Rider eras.
If the original film had one glaring weakness, it was the opposition. Comic book readers know Blackheart as one of Ghost Rider’s most dangerous enemies. The movie transforms him into a pale young man who spends much of the runtime delivering cheesy dialogue before an underwhelming final confrontation.
The elemental demons Gressil, Wallow, and Abigor fare even worse. Rather than feeling like terrifying supernatural threats, they’re dispatched with surprising ease, making Ghost Rider appear almost invincible throughout the movie. Great heroes need great villains. That’s something Marvel’s reboot absolutely has to remember.
One criticism that has only become more apparent over time is the original movie’s visual style. Despite dealing with demons, Hell, cursed souls, and supernatural vengeance, Ghost Rider often looks glossy and candy-coated.
Ghost Rider has always occupied Marvel’s horror corner. He should feel eerie and otherworldly. The flaming skull shouldn’t simply look cool, it should make people on-screen genuinely afraid. Recent Marvel projects have shown that the studio is willing to embrace darker storytelling. Ghost Rider is one of the characters who would benefit most from that approach.
Where the first movie stumbled in execution, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance stumbled in understanding the character. Ironically, the sequel originated from an earlier Ghost Rider screenplay written by David S. Goyer, whose unused draft contained several promising ideas. During the rewrites by Scott M. Gimple and Seth Hoffman, however, many of those strengths disappeared. The result was a movie that felt less like a continuation of the original and more like a soft reboot.
It addressed some obvious criticisms. The visuals became grittier. The action became more intense. Unfortunately, those improvements came at the expense of the title character.
The sequel’s biggest mistake arrives almost immediately. Johnny Blaze describes Ghost Rider as a murderous monster that punishes everyone, from violent criminals to people guilty of “little white lies” or even illegal downloads. That’s not Ghost Rider. He isn’t a supernatural serial killer. He isn’t an indiscriminate monster. His purpose is to punish genuine evil, not everyone who has ever made a minor mistake.
That misunderstanding carries through the entire movie. Ghost Rider behaves less like the tragic antihero fans recognize from the comics and more like a monster dropped into an action movie.
One recurring problem throughout Spirit of Vengeance is its treatment of comic book mythology. Danny Ketch appears, but only as a name attached to an entirely different character. Blackout appears, but it’s not Marvel’s demonic pseudo-vampire. Zarathos is mentioned, but is fundamentally rewritten. These references seem designed to make comic readers recognize familiar names without preserving what made those characters memorable in the first place.
Faithfulness isn’t about copying every storyline exactly. Sometimes changing the comics improves a movie. The first Ghost Rider proved that by simplifying Johnny Blaze’s origin. But changing characters so completely that only their names remain rarely serves either longtime fans or newcomers.
To its credit, Spirit of Vengeance does deliver several memorable action scenes. The sequence in which Ghost Rider transforms a massive bucket-wheel excavator into a hell-powered machine of destruction is a great visual. Unfortunately, action alone can’t carry the movie.
The first film featured memorable supporting performances from Peter Fonda as Mephisto and Sam Elliott as Carter Slade. The sequel never finds comparable characters, even with Idris Elba and Christopher Lambert in the cast. Its mythology becomes increasingly convoluted, the emotional stakes weaken, and too much of the dialogue aims for crude comedy rather than supernatural horror.
The infamous joke about Ghost Rider urinating flames perfectly captures the sequel’s priorities. Instead of asking what makes Ghost Rider fascinating, directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor seemed more interested in asking what outrageous visual gag they could create next.
Looking back, neither Ghost Rider movie completely failed. The 2007 film understood Ghost Rider’s heart. It built a great mythology, created a sympathetic Johnny Blaze, and successfully established the tragic curse that defines the character. It just needed stronger villains and a darker atmosphere.
Spirit of Vengeance recognized some of those shortcomings. It added grit, energy, and more elaborate action, but abandoned too much of what made the first movie work. Instead of building on the existing foundation, it largely discarded it.
That’s the lesson Marvel Studios should take into Ryan Gosling’s Ghost Rider. Keep the tragic origin. Keep the horror mythology. Keep Ghost Rider as a supernatural force of justice rather than a generic monster. Find villains worthy of his power. Lean into the darker atmosphere that has always separated Ghost Rider from the rest of Marvel’s heroes.
The blueprint already exists, but it’s scattered across two very different movies. If Marvel can combine the heart of the first film with the intensity the second was chasing, and as long as the filmmakers have a strong understanding of the character, Ryan Gosling’s Ghost Rider has the chance to become the definitive big screen version fans have been waiting decades to see.