Ryan Gosling is Ghost Rider. Marvel Studios announced the casting on Saturday night, 26 July 2026, inside Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con, with Shawn Levy directing and a 2028 release window on the books (Variety).

The Hall H panel — a fixture of Comic-Con, where studios preview upcoming films to roughly 6,500 fans in the convention centre's largest room — ran about 40 minutes and began 30 minutes late, according to Variety. Some attendees had camped outside for more than 30 hours to secure a seat.

Josh Horowitz, host of the podcast "Happy Sad Confused," introduced Gosling on stage and referenced his own history of pressing the actor about Ghost Rider rumours in past interviews — a running joke that turned out to have substance behind it. The film sits alongside "Black Panther 3" as one of only two titles Marvel confirmed for its post-"Doomsday," post-"Secret Wars" phase. Both are dated for 2028.

Ryan Coogler returns to direct "Black Panther 3," with David Jonsson cast as T'Challa II — the son of Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa. Jonsson's credits include "Alien: Romulus" and the Stephen King adaptation "The Long Walk."

The panel's other major draw was "Avengers: Doomsday." Directors Joe and Anthony Russo told the crowd that production had wrapped. Marvel screened an exclusive trailer that deepened the backstory of Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom — his ties to the Fantastic Four, a tortured personal history — alongside footage recycled from the previous teaser. The trailer also showed Doom resurrecting a fleet of Sentinel robots, the giant mutant-hunting machines from the X-Men comics, to battle the assembled heroes.

Several actors from Fox's "X-Men" film franchise are returning for "Doomsday," though no indication was given about whether they will continue into "Secret Wars" or beyond. Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios' president, did not confirm whether Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool would appear in either film. A person in a Deadpool X-Force costume did appear on stage during the "Doomsday" cast gathering — and did not remove the mask.

Marvel also screened a trailer for "Avengers: Endgame Encore," a re-release of the 2019 blockbuster that bundles in a sneak peek at "Doomsday." And Insomniac Games presented a new story trailer for the "Marvel's Wolverine" video game during the panel (Marvel.com).

Feige took a moment to acknowledge Stephen Wacker's appointment as the new editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, the publishing arm that supplies the source material for the studio's films.

What fans did not get was an X-Men film announcement. Feige has previously said the mutant team would help steer the Marvel Cinematic Universe's future, but no X-Men title was named. Variety characterised the panel's yield as two genuine surprises — Ghost Rider and Black Panther 3 — prompting a sentiment the trade summarised as "Is that it?" The same report noted Marvel's previously announced "Blade" movie never fully materialised, framing the Ghost Rider news as warranting an "I'll believe it when I see it" stance.

"Secret Wars" is slated for 2027. Beyond it, only two films are on the board.