SAN DIEGO, July 30 -- He walked out and the room lost it.

Not in the managed-enthusiasm way that Hall H produces when a Marvel clip drops and the crowd obliges. When Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios' president, introduced his final act at Sunday night's San Diego Comic-Con presentation, the roughly 6,500 people in the room reacted with the particular noise that means something actually happened.

Ryan Gosling is Marvel's new Ghost Rider. Shawn Levy will direct. Jonathan Tropper will write the script. The film is targeting theaters in 2028, as The Hollywood Reporter confirmed.

The casting ends a genuinely complicated history for one of Marvel's most distinctive characters. Johnny Blaze, stunt motorcyclist, damned soul, and human host for the ...