Tumbleweeds dance across desert sands. The night is cold, colder by the hour. The lizards have dug into the sand. Roadrunners have found their brushes to sleep in. Danger lurks in the air, hiding in the open darkness.
A congress of bandits celebrates their latest thefts. They joke about the lives taken by their bullets. These godless, immoral thieves of the night eat well as they stoke the scullery fire. A presence not of this world approaches, they do not know him. They have heard the legends.
See him. Leather and chains and a skull on fire. His motorcycle’s hum dies down. The light from his head. The smell of sulfur. They fear not their fellow man, but they fear the Spirit of Vengeance.
They scramble, each man and woman fleeing. All that expanse of land and nowhere to go. They do not get far. He brandishes a chain that wraps and combusts all but one, who scrambles away. The straggler sprints for their life. The desert chill is harsh, but the hellish fire approaching is crueler.
Looking back, he is not there. Back to front, they are met with him up close, finally. Beneath the orbits is a stare. A stare that holds the ashes of sin and blood and evil. Their soul, rent asunder by the Ghost Rider.
*****
As I wrote one day, I listened to drone rock band Earth’s album Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method. I was in a Western mood, and its ambient, slow, and plodding build inspired many an idea. Dread in the birth of America. Music has that effect.
You know that feeling when you have a cinematic vision in your head? The ones that might be good on paper, but not on the big screen? That’s what this felt like. I’m not qualified to write or script films. Yet, I know that Marvel Studios can make this sort of Ghost Rider film.
By no means do I think I could do this type of film better than Kevin Feige and the creatives that Marvel Studios reels in. So, without further ado, here is my pitch for what I’d love to see if the Ghost Rider cast its unholy flame to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
A brief history of the Ghost Rider
Johnny Blaze, the first incarnation of the Ghost Rider. A stunt cyclist who seeks the thrills of peril while his bike’s engines roar to cacophonous crowds. Depending on the origin of Blaze, he makes a deal with the entity Mephisto to save or resurrect his father/adoptive father. Mephisto is essentially Marvel’s stand-in for Satan, albeit not Satan himself. He claims souls and makes deals with mortals while exercising power over demons in and out of his realm. Once Mephisto comes to collect, he uses Blaze’s cycling prowess to bond him with the demon Zarathos.
Zarathos spent centuries coexisting with Native Americans, demanding sacrifices in exchange for his protection from outside invaders. Mephisto, displeased by his popularity (yes, he’s that petty), forces Zarathos into becoming a Spirit of Vengeance. A spirit, collectings souls of the damned to spend an eternity in Mephisto’s Realm.
There have been others to take up the Ghost Rider mantel. Daniel Ketch, a brother seeking vengeance against gangsters who killed his sister. Robbie Reyes, an orphan gunned down in Los Angeles, was resurrected with the Ghost Rider spirit. For fans of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Reyes appeared as Ghost Rider, portrayed by Gabriel Luna.
Initially, the moniker of Ghost Rider went to a man named Carter Slade. Published in 1967, The Ghost Rider followed a man who indeed held supernatural powers, but nothing like the flaming skull we’ve come to know and love. I bring this up, bearing in mind that this series was in the Western genre.
The Pitch
From my introductory paragraph, the approach for my ideal Ghost Rider story includes a hybrid between Western and horror genres. This of course blends the origins of Carter Slade’s cowboy-esque Ghost Rider with the horrifying elements of the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider. And, that’s not exactly a new thing.
Numerous fictional works combine Western/neo-Western and horror, notably Bone Tomahawk, Rob Zombie’s Firefly Family Trilogy, From Dusk Till Dawn, and many others. There are even Westerns with small horror elements, such as Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian.
Furthermore, the folklore aspect of a Ghost Rider film should be an aspect. There are many spooky sections of America’s urban legends. Cryptids, like the Mothman, Bigfoot, the Wendigo, and the Appalachian region all come to mind.
As for the overall vibes, this type of vision would evoke a sort of Johnny Cash-inspired apocalyptic vision. Think “Ghost Riders in the Sky” coalesced with “The Man Comes Around” and “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”. A Ghost Rider film that evokes the desolate landscape that comes with the unoccupied, unsettled, uncolonized West. And the demons that come with its lawless temptations.
I’ll address the elephant in the room—the two Ghost Rider films starring Nicolas Cage as Blaze. Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. For my taste, they’re alright films. Not too bad, but not mind-blowing either. The first one struggles with its identity while the second finds a horror element that almost works.
This is not like those movies. There’s a way to introduce Johnny Blaze as Ghost Rider into the MCU. (Or re-introduce if Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is still canon.)
The Direction
To reiterate my point in the beginning, I’m not the one qualified to make such a film. To me, this would seem like a role for a director such as Mike Flanagan, James Wan, Jennifer Kent, or even Guillermo Del Toro. The more I think about it, a Ghost Rider film feels so Del Toro.
Thematically, I could see an amalgamation of elements that would make for a strong Ghost Rider film. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I think a story of duality and guilt can make for a compelling plot. Something similar to Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Johnny Blaze, tasked with taking the souls of man would weigh heavily on his mind. It’s a soul-crushing level of guilt, testing the mettle of his humanity. All the while the Spirit of Vengeance acts as it should; a collector of debts and nothing more.
At this point, fans have already been treated to a Ghost Rider origin story; condensing it or making a reference would do. If Marvel Studio wants to, they can reintegrate Robbie Reyes back into the fold in some way. Although, there is a rumor as of 2024 that Ryan Gosling could play Ghost Rider. (I still want Norman Reedus in the role of Blaze, though.)
I’d imagine a villain having a sort of Moby Dick-esque mission to hunt the Ghost Rider would be a neat introduction. With an addition of Southern Gothic elements, showing the nasty, gnarly side of the southern side of the United States of America, while displaying the beauty of the lands therein. Violence and social decay in a post-Blip world, with social taboos and mental health being a subject. Of course, these themes may be a bit out of the MCU’s usual vision, as well as some of the even darker elements of Southern Gothic, so this would be a careful path to tread upon.
Kevin Feige and the team would have quite a special story on their hand that could add lore to the MCU while dispensing another side of it. Besides, the supernatural side could use more than Doctor Strange, Werewolf by Night, and Moon Knight. The tease for Ghost Rider can even piggyback off of Blade if he ever makes his non-Wesley Snipes debut.
It's time for Ghost Rider to enter the MCU
The Ghost Rider in the MCU is a unique situation. Superheroes almost inherently deal with duality, but exploring those elements in the backdrop of American folklore can show a side to the world that isn’t seen often.
And if these deeper elements of the Southern Gothic genre or Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick doesn’t prove enticing, that’s perfectly fine. Though with the anti-bigotry stance of the genre, a post-Secret Wars MCU with persecuted mutants could bring that factor to life. Either way, the route of horror and Western is so tantalizing. When I first watched the Nicolas Cage films, I wished for more terror and dread. Instead, there were admittedly great action scenes.
I maintain that the Marvel Cinematic Universe films are at their best when they’re auteur-driven, with reasonable reigns holding their proverbial waxen wings far enough from the Sun. Taking vision-directed stories with their identities creates a solid sense for the characters, capped off in each saga by a Russo-directed crossover. And perhaps Ghost Rider doesn’t need that last part—it's a loner for the most part.
With that in mind, I’d like to feel bone-chilling terror as I root for the soul-hunting antics of The Ghost Rider and how its vessel will cope.