Marvel has had a number of major announcements over the last several months, with both San Diego Comic Con and D23 revealing a number of surprises to fans. Among the biggest bits of news out of those two events and in the months since have been confirmation of multiple X-Men casting decisions, release dates for movies like Black Panther 3 and X-Men, and the long-awaited news that Ghost Rider will finally be making an MCU debut. Even better, the MCU’s Ghost Rider movie will see Ryan Gosling as the titular lead—a role that he has very publicly wanted for quite some time. Joining Gosling for Ghost Rider is director Shawn Levy, and if that combination sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Levy and Gosling also worked on Star Wars’ next movie release, Star Wars: Starfighter, and it was actually during that process that the two came together with an idea for Ghost Rider.
However, Tom Cruise has just revealed that he tried to pull Levy into another project—one that almost certainly would have meant Levy not working on Ghost Rider, which may have in turn meant the film not coming together at all. According to reports, Cruise “aggressively pursued” Levy as a director for the sequel to his 1990 movie Days of Thunder, Days of Thunder 2, but Levy opted for Ghost Rider instead. It’s possible that Marvel could have moved forward on Ghost Rider with just Gosling and another director or handed the project over to an entirely different star and director (although that would have no doubt been beyond controversial), but because Gosling and Levy presented the idea together and, presumably, were coming as a package deal, Levy’s decision to turn down Days of Thunder 2 might be the reason that fans are finally getting Ghost Rider on the big screen in the MCU.
It seems likely, based on how interested in having Levy as the director he apparently was, that Cruise was disappointed by this outcome, but Marvel fans should feel just the opposite. It’s true that we don’t yet know what Ghost Rider has in store, and we actually haven’t yet seen Starfighter either, so it’s anyone’s guess at this point in terms of how either will perform. Nevertheless, it was evidently the quality of Starfighter that helped to get Ghost Rider the green light, which at the very least suggests that Gosling and Levy are a great pair. What’s more, though, it really wasn’t clear when this character would be brought into the MCU, if ever. Based on the information we currently have, it seems safe to assume that Gosling and Levy’s advocacy for the project played a key role.
This new movie is also coming at an important time for the MCU, which will undoubtedly be seeing some major changes following the releases of Avengers: Doomsday this December and Avengers: Secret Wars next year. Whether that will actually constitute the full-fledged overhaul that many are expecting remains to be seen, but in either case, it certainly can’t hurt to have a project on the horizon that fans are excited about (especially one so many years in the making, just considering how long Gosling has voiced an interest in the role). Sadly, this means that Days of Thunder 2 won’t have quite the direction that Cruise was apparently looking for, but that doesn’t have to be terrible news for that movie, either. After all, Jonathan Levine is now reportedly attached to the project, and there’s excitement about that as well.
What do you think? Are you glad Shawn Levy will be tackling Ghost Rider? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
