Before Marvel Studios took charge of all the small screen stories featuring its heroes and villains, there were plans at Marvel Television to give Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Gabriel Luna his own Ghost Rider TV series on Hulu. The project was scrapped when Kevin Feige usurped Jeph Loeb, and the Spirit of Vengeance's MCU future is now a mystery to us.
ComicBook.com recently caught up with Luna and got confirmation from the actor that the series was in full-blown pre-production when the cancellation was handed down from Disney. Helstrom happened because cameras had started rolling, but by the time it was released, any Marvel branding was so subtle, there was no way fans would confuse it for anything that was actually set in the MCU.
That was no doubt by design, but Luna confirmed that the original plan was for a slate of supernatural shows to eventually culminate in a crossover event. Explaining that they "had a really awesome idea that would have kept Robbie [Reyes] in L.A. and that would have pitted us against classic Ghost Rider villains," the actor noted that Lilith was set to be the lead villain.
"I think it would have led up to her being the big bad of what we were initially trying to start, which was this four-show, very Defenders-esque thing that was going to happen."
Fans responded positively to Luna's take on Robbie Reyes, especially after two disastrous movies with Nicolas Cage. Unfortunately, as Helstrom proved, Marvel Television really couldn't be trusted to deliver the sort of quality content Disney wanted for its streaming service, hence why Feige was ultimately put in charge of everything and made shows firmly set in the MCU.
There have been rumblings about future live-action plans for Ghost Rider, but as far as we're aware, they don't involve Luna or any of the storylines established in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which is why the Darkhold was reintroduced in WandaVision as a completely separate entity to that show's effort).
Are you disappointed Ghost Rider didn't happen?
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