Eva Mendes found a particularly personal way to celebrate Ryan Gosling’s Ghost Rider casting. Rather than offering the standard congratulations, she connected his new Marvel role to the motorcycle drama where their relationship began and to her own history with the flame-headed antihero.
On July 26, Mendes shared a fan-edited version of the opening scene from 2012’s The Place Beyond the Pines. The original sequence follows Gosling’s tattooed motorcycle stunt rider, Luke Glanton, through a carnival before he climbs onto his bike. The edit placed the newly revealed Ghost Rider logo over the footage and argued that the scene alone made Gosling look right for the role.
Mendes added a short caption: “Love, Roxy.”
Why Eva Mendes signed her post “Roxy”
The reference reaches back further than The Place Beyond the Pines. Mendes played Roxanne Simpson, the love interest of Nicolas Cage’s Johnny Blaze, in the 2007 film Ghost Rider.
That movie was made before Marvel Studios established its current cinematic universe. Produced on a reported $110 million budget, it earned about $229 million worldwide. Cage returned for the 2012 sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which made roughly $149.2 million worldwide against a $57 million budget. Mendes did not return for the follow-up.
Her post therefore linked three parts of the couple’s shared story: her earlier role as Roxanne, Gosling’s motorcycle-heavy performance in The Place Beyond the Pines, and his new turn as Marvel’s supernatural rider.
Mendes also shared a montage of scenes featuring the couple in The Place Beyond the Pines, describing it as “Ghost Rider in a parallel universe.” She thanked the fan who made the edit for highlighting what she called “this beautiful parallel universe connection.”
The 2012 crime drama carries added emotional weight for Mendes and Gosling because they met while making it. They now share two daughters, Esmeralda, 11, and Amada, 10.
What Marvel announced at Comic-Con
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige introduced Gosling during the company’s Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con on July 25. Disney, the Associated Press, Variety, ABC News and the Los Angeles Times all confirmed that the standalone Ghost Rider film is planned for theaters in 2028, with Shawn Levy directing.
Gosling appeared in a red jacket and black trousers matching the colors of the film’s logo. Addressing the crowd, he said, “Wow, is this really happening?”
“As you know, this is a character I’ve wanted to play for a very long time,” he continued, thanking Feige, interviewer Josh Horowitz and the Hall H audience.
Levy offered the production’s closest thing to a launch plan: “Let’s ride, we’ll see you in 2028.”
Marvel has not announced a specific release date, additional cast members, a screenwriter or plot details. That leaves audiences with a star, a director and a year, which is apparently enough information to set Hall H at full volume.
Gosling has wanted the role for years
The casting was not a sudden idea created for Comic-Con. Gosling publicly expressed interest in playing Ghost Rider as early as 2022. Feige responded at the time by praising him as “unbelievable” and saying he wanted to find a place for the actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The character most closely associated with the Ghost Rider identity is Johnny Blaze, who debuted in 1972 in Marvel Spotlight No. 5. In Marvel’s comics, Blaze becomes Ghost Rider after making a demonic bargain involving his surrogate father. He is bonded with the demon Zarathos, gaining supernatural powers and the character’s signature flaming skull.
The new film will also reunite Gosling and Levy after Star Wars: Starfighter, which is scheduled to arrive in 2027. Their second major studio project together will follow one year later if Marvel keeps its announced window.
That pairing gives Marvel a recognizable director and star for a supernatural property that has spent years outside the center of its theatrical plans.
Is this really the MCU’s first Ghost Rider?
Gosling will be the first actor to lead a Marvel Studios theatrical film as Ghost Rider, but calling him the first Ghost Rider in the wider MCU needs qualification.
Gabriel Luna played Robbie Reyes, another version of the character, during the fourth season of the Marvel and ABC television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2016. The show originally operated as part of the MCU, though its current canonical status has remained unresolved as Marvel Studios reorganized its television continuity.
Nicolas Cage, meanwhile, remains the first actor to play Johnny Blaze in live-action feature films, appearing in both the 2007 original and its 2012 sequel.
Marvel has not said whether Gosling will portray Johnny Blaze, Robbie Reyes or another incarnation, although his earlier comments about wanting the role were widely understood to refer to Blaze. Nor has the studio explained whether the film will connect with its other supernatural characters and storylines.
For now, Mendes has supplied the clearest connection: she played Roxy before meeting Gosling on a film where he rode motorcycles, and he is now heading toward a character built around one. Marvel continuity may be unsettled, but the family symmetry is unusually tidy.
