Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been teasing something big for San Diego Comic-Con, happening in two weeks on the 20th – 24th of July. Check out the decal for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. train (below) and that awfully familiar long fiery chain going across the side. This can mean only one thing, that Ghost Rider is coming on the show!
Get fired up! Marvel’s #AgentsofSHIELD knows how to get to you #SDCC in style. pic.twitter.com/F9aI2tMF4U
— Agents of SHIELD (@AgentsofSHIELD) June 22, 2016
The fire chain is an iconic weapon of the Ghost Rider character. But which Ghost Rider will be seeing? The one that everyone would be most familiar with would be the Johnny Blaze story. But Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has announced casting two new characters for Season 4, they’re looking for actors to play two Latino brothers, one who is “always the most dangerous person in the room,” and one who is in a wheelchair.
This dynamic sounds like the casting call is for Robbie Reyes and his brother Gabe, the brothers at the center of the Ghost Rider comic series from the Marvel Now! rebranding. Robbie is notable for being the latest character to take up the mantle of Ghost Rider, and if this theory is true, that would make Ghost Rider the biggest superhero character to appear on the show.
The original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, has been played in two terrible movies by Nicolas Cage. However the Robbie Reyes version is a bit different. Robbie was a mechanic who was trying to race enough money to move him and his disabled brother Gabe out of their dangerous neighborhood. However, a street race goes bad and Robbie was gunned down inside his car by hitmen working for Mr. Hyde (Daisy’s father). Robbie was bonded with a vengeful spirit and resurrected as the new Ghost Rider, working to clean up his neighborhood while trying to appease the murderous spirit sharing his body.
This theory has a lot going for it. The casting announcement is almost too specific to not be the Reyes brothers, and while some also fell back on the assumption that the fiery chain belonged to Hellfire, that character already debuted on S.H.I.E.L.D. and that wouldn’t be a very good Comic-Con announcement.
Robbie is still a relatively new character, free from the association with the subpar Cage movies. He’s the best version of Ghost Rider to be on TV. Plus, he’s got a sick look and he drives around in his “hell-ified” Dodge Charger – think the Ghost Rider motorcycle, but as a car, awesome. All of that might sound expensive, but The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow prove that superhero level effects are possible on a network TV show.
We’ll probably get an answer to Ghost Rider once Comic-Con rolls around. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will return on September 20th.
