1 Casting Choice That Marvel's Ghost Rider Reboot Should Copy From Nicolas Cage's Movie

Published Jul 29, 2026, 10:30 PM EDT Nicholas Raymond is an author and journalist based out of Alabama, where he proudly roots for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team. A graduate of the University of Montevallo, he has a degree in mass communication with a concentration in journalism. To be released more than two decades after the first live-action adaptation, the MCU's Ghost Rider movie gives Marvel Studios an excellent opportunity to offer a fresh and exciting take on the Spirit of Vengeance. That'll naturally come with new interpretations of the characters and concepts associated with Ghost Rider's small corner of the Marvel Universe. But that doesn't mean it won't borrow anything from the 2007 Nicolas Cage-led film. With Ryan Gosling in the lead role, as opposed to Nicolas Cage, 2028's Ghost Rider is sure to offer a very different depiction of its principal character, regardless of whether it's Danny Ketch, a brand new Ghost Rider, or Johnny Blaze again. For now, there's no word on what exactly that may be, or what his story may entail. Assuming it delivers at least a somewhat traditional retelling of his story, it could feature mainstay Ghost Rider characters who were also in the first movie, including Roxanne Simpson, Blackheart, and Mephisto, who already exists in the MCU courtesy of Sacha Baron Cohen's role in Ironheart. Another character audiences may see on the big screen a second time is Carter Slade. Admittedly, Carter Slade is less vital to Ghost Rider's story in comparison to the others, but taking inspiration from the original movie's approach to him can go a long way toward making the film a crowd pleaser. And that includes bringing back the actor who played him in the first place. The MCU's Ghost Rider Should Keep Ghost Rider's Carter Slade Retcon Ghost Rider made a brilliant casting move by tapping Sam Elliott as Carter Slade, an existing character in the Marvel Universe. In the comic books, Carter Slade was a 19th-century cowboy who became the white-clad, horse-riding superhero known as the Phantom Rider. The 2007 film reimagined Carter Slade as a previous host of the Spirit of Vengeance. The comic character never held this role, but the change did make sense, as it honored an important connection between the two characters. Even though the moniker meant something entirely different in his comic book series in the late 1960s, Carter Slade is Marvel's first Ghost Rider. It wasn't until later that he was renamed "Phantom Rider." Later on, Johnny Blaze's comics used time travel to allow the two heroes' paths to cross. Ghost Rider made their ties much more meaningful, which works largely because it does go hand-in-hand with the idea - which has been present in the comics since the early 1990s - that there are countless people who hosted the Spirit of Vengeance centuries before Johnny Blaze was even born. Some are established characters in Marvel canon. Applying that concept to Carter Slade worked out well, particularly when considering who was picked for the part. Sam Elliott is one of the greatest contemporary Western movie actors and an icon of the genre. With his penchant for playing tough and deadly serious gunslingers, there was perhaps no one better suited for playing the Phantom Rider than Sam Elliott, and though it's been 20 years since he played that character, that continues to be the case today. It's not hard to imagine Elliot, even though he's 81 years old, playing Slade again in the MCU's Ghost Rider movie. What Role Carter Slade Could Have In The MCU's Ghost Rider If Marvel pays homage to the original by bringing back Sam Elliott as Carter Slade, there's a number of different avenues the film could take to make that happen. The 2007 adaptation merged him with the Caretaker character, but the MCU will most likely chart its own course. The most obvious way of making it work would be to throw a Phantom Rider cameo into a sequence that serves as a history lesson about Zarathos and the various hosts it's bonded with throughout history. Heading in this direction would help the movie flesh out the lore of the Ghost Rider character, while also incorporating a clever Easter egg to the first effort to bring Johnny Blaze to the big screen. And as an added touch, it can bring Carter Slade closer to the source material with an all-white design that's much more faithful to the classic character. Release Date July 28, 2028 Director Shawn Levy Writers Jonathan Tropper Producers Kevin Feige Cast Johnny Blaze / Ghost Rider