AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Originally Planned To Use Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider Instead Of Robbie Reyes

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Originally Planned To Use Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider Instead Of Robbie Reyes

While Johnny Blaze had a blink-and-you'd miss it cameo in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the original plan was for him to take centre stage as the Spirit of Vengeance in the ABC series instead of Robbie Reyes.

By JoshWilding - Oct 27, 2021 06:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Source: ComicBook.com

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. made use of a lot of great comic book characters during its run, but Gabriel Luna's Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider proved himself a highlight. However, early plans called for the spotlight to be put on original Spirit of Vengeance, Johnny Blaze (played by Nic Cage in the movies). 

Talking to ComicBook.com, VFX Supervisor Mark Kolpack revealed that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. showrunners Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon planned to end season 3 with a post-credits scene setting the stage for Johnny to ride into the ABC series.

"The tease that never got shot was going to be this," he explained "It was supposed to be a husband and wife at one of those Storage Wars-kind of bidding places. They bid on a storage locker and then they open up the locker and they're going into it and going, 'Wow. What the hell is all this?'"

"Then they started seeing posters of the Daredevil motorcycle stuff and there was a leather jacket there and a motorcycle. There were all these little tidbit clues that were going to be in there to foreshadow and tease everybody for Season 4," Kolpack continued. "But Marvel took away the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider, so they changed it quickly to the [Life Model Decoy] Aida business where you saw there was a shadowy figure behind fog glass with a female voice. That was actually Maurissa's voice because of having to put together something really quickly."

Marvel Studios wouldn't allow Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to use the Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch versions of Ghost Rider, likely because they have their own plans for the motorbike-riding demonic entity. Ultimately, they also pulled the plug on that planned Hulu spinoff series, and we've probably seen the last of Robbie in live-action for the foreseeable future if Kevin Feige is that disinterested.

On the plus side, the future now looks a little brighter for Johnny and Danny in the MCU!

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UXASIS
UXASIS - 10/27/2021, 6:35 AM
Season 2 and 4 were the best.

S3 was also great, but Inhumans, Ward, Ghost Rider, and LMD's brought something really special.

What a beautiful evolution this show had. Second best right after Daredevil.

bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 10/27/2021, 6:37 AM
@UXASIS - season 4 took a small dive in the middle arc, but it's still my favorite season thanks to the Ghost Rider and Framework arcs
HeavyMetal4Life
HeavyMetal4Life - 10/27/2021, 6:50 AM
@UXASIS - Season 2 was the second weakest season, it was good but season 3 is where the show really found its formula. But yes, season 4 was the best and was one of the best seasons of a comic book show out there.
hummingbird68
hummingbird68 - 10/27/2021, 8:53 AM
@UXASIS - I know I'm in the minority, but season one is my favourite season of AOS, followed by season 4 of course :)
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 10/27/2021, 9:18 AM
@UXASIS - that show was great till after the season that had Ghost Rider, the following season was ok but not as good.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 10/27/2021, 10:08 AM
@UXASIS -
Getting to see the extended origin of a character like Quake was awesome. Personally I liked season 1 even with the slow start. Bill Paxton, Ward turning bad, Deathlock, the whole tease about what happened to Coulson. Loved it.

I had my problems with season 4 and beyond but by that point they lost any support from the mothership at Marvel and became orphans.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 10/27/2021, 10:09 AM
@hummingbird68 -
The second half of Season 1 with it's tie in to the larger MCU was my favorite. You have to discuss it in the context of a larger story with Winter Soldier to really cement the quality of the second half of the season.

Bitchin' it was.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 10/27/2021, 6:36 AM
Liked what they ended up doing with the Ghost Rider arc anyway, so it wasn't a big miss to not have Johnny or Danny there. Hope we get to see those two in Midnight Sons
HeavyMetal4Life
HeavyMetal4Life - 10/27/2021, 6:52 AM
They did a really good job with Robbie Reyes on the show, and I'm honestly glad that we had Reyes with Luna taking center stage for season 4. Of course we would have likely explored Blaze in the Ghost Rider spinoff...

Anyways, the bar is very high for the next Ghost Rider in the MCU. They should bring back Luna in all honesty, dude killed it in the role.

hummingbird68
hummingbird68 - 10/27/2021, 8:57 AM
@HeavyMetal4Life - They did an amazing job with Ghost Rider, especially considering the tv budget.

Besides X-men and Fantastic Four my most anticipated MCU character to be introduced are:
1. Moon Knight
2. Ghost Rider
3. Blade
4. DareDevil (he's only 4th because we have had an amazing version in
recent years)
AC1
AC1 - 10/27/2021, 8:09 AM
I'd love Marvel to bring back Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes in some capacity, even as a variant. He was absolutely perfect in the role and that version of Ghost Rider is such a cool change of pace.

I'd also love them to introduce a new version of Johnny Blaze, and I'm sure this has already been suggested but I think Norman Reedus would be a [frick]ing amazing choice to play the character. And it'd be really cool to see these two very different Ghost Riders side by side on screen.
AC1
AC1 - 10/27/2021, 8:10 AM
@AC1 - Oh shit apparently Reedus has expressed interest in the role too!
DanFlashesShirt
DanFlashesShirt - 10/27/2021, 9:04 AM
@AC1 - lol, cause he plays a brooding loner who rides a motorcycle on the walking dead? Come on, we can do better.
JDL
JDL - 10/27/2021, 10:22 AM
@AC1 - Feige shutting down a Robbie Reyes series was imo a d*ck move. They will never use him or any other Ghost Rider as a major character in a movie. If Marvel was going to do something in that genre they should acted years ago because Sony of all people looks like its claiming it for their own.
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 10/27/2021, 9:17 AM
I liked what they ended up doing with Robby Reyes, glad they would save Jonny Blaze for something more special than AOS. Now can we get a Ghost Rider, Blade, Punisher and Moon Knight crossover in a Midnight Sons series or movie??
JDL
JDL - 10/27/2021, 10:39 AM
@slickrickdesigns - If you think they will do something significant in the near term with any of the GR's you are mistaken.
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 10/27/2021, 11:47 AM
@JDL - 👍… we can all dream.
JDL
JDL - 10/27/2021, 12:50 PM
@slickrickdesigns - "we can all dream."

True dat. With two Venom successes if Sony has one more winner that sub-genre may be a bit crowded. I think Marvel screwed up. YMMV.
marvel72
marvel72 - 10/27/2021, 11:55 AM
Well now you can use Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch in a movie or show,also let's have a Ghost Rider not Ghost Driver.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 10/27/2021, 8:00 PM
Weird because they DID end up letting them use him:
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