In the last decade, whenever an actor reaches a certain stature, his name inevitably starts getting attached to various superhero titles – whether he wants it to or not. And Ryan Gosling, who is returning from a four-year-long break from acting this week in Netflix’s The Gray Man – is no exception.
As is now standard, Gosling’s name has been floated around with various superheroes, the most recent of which is Nova – which is rumoured to be in development as a Disney Plus series, possibly from the writer of Moon Knight.
Now Josh Horowitz, the host of the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast has said; “Next week, my full chat with Ryan Gosling for MTV News [will be released]. But for now, an honest to goodness exclusive. Ryan and I chatted about the Nova rumours yesterday, which he said aren’t true. But this morning Ryan reached out to me to say there is one superhero he wants to play…GHOST RIDER.” Ghost Rider has previously been played on the big screen by Nicolas Cage in 2007 and 2011.
Ryan Gosling’s last movie was Damien Chazelle’s First Man, which was released in 2018 and unfortunately underperformed at the box office. Since then Gosling has been on a break from acting, spending time with his family. However, he now has several high-profile projects lined up. He is currently filming Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, in which he plays Ken.
He also is developing a Wolfman project with Derek Cianfrance, who he has worked with twice before. There’s also The Fall Guy, directed by David Leitch, in which Gosling will play a stuntman and bounty hunter. There’s The Actor, directed by Duke Johnson, in which Gosling plays an actor with amnesia in 1950s Ohio. There are still more projects on Goslings’s upcoming slate – which may all come to fruition, or some may fall by the wayside.
Whether Gosling will be able to squeeze a Marvel project in amongst all of this other work remains to be seen. Critically-acclaimed actors may have seen Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke in Moon Knight, as well as Christian Bale in Thor 4 and thought that they could have a piece of the MCU pie too.
While we wait for more news, check out our guide to Marvel’s Phase 4.