Ryan Gosling’s ‘Ghost Rider’ To Release Over Twenty Years After ‘Iron Man'

Iron Man still feels like it came outta nowhere, and it was an insane hit. I remember receiving a post on my Facebook wall from a High School friend whom I had just graduated with, who excitedly asked, “Did you see Iron Man? I don’t know the comic books, but it was good!” We had gone to school together for years, and that was the first time he ever brought up anything comic-book related to me. And, friends, I did not mean to wake up and choose violence today, but that happened almost twenty years ago.

We aren’t at the twenty-year mark just yet! We’ve still got a couple of years before that happens. But it will be here before we know it, and that will give us twenty years of the MCU in movie theaters. Twenty years of quips about character names. Twenty years of sky beams. Twenty years of after-credits scenes. It’s weird! Not bad or good, it’s just a fact that I’m struggling to grapple with right now. And it won’t even be the end! Kevin Feige claims that the MCU has plans to 2042, and they’ll kick off with Ryan Gosling.

Gosling was announced as the MCU’s new Ghost Rider at San Diego Comic Con to much fanfare, in one of the company’s classic reveals we’ve gotten used to over the last two decades. To be fair, Gosling’s Ghost Rider could easily go the way of the Inhumans movie, Captain America: Serpent Society, or Mahershala Ali’s doomed Blade film, but the fact that they announced him with a firm release date (about twenty years and two weeks after Iron Man) makes that seem less likely.

Feige was also joined by Ryan Coogler to bring out the incredible David Jonsson and reveal that he will be playing T’Challa’s son and taking up the mantle of Black Panther. Jonsson is only 32-years-old, which is honestly a lot older than I thought he was, but still an indicator that they want to set the stage for the next era of the MCU. Jonsson will star in Black Panther 3, which will also release in 2028, but in December, so twenty years and seven months since Iron Man, and ten years and ten months after the first Black Panther (look, I don’t like this either!!).

By the time Black Panther 3 comes out, there will be people who were born after Iron Man was released yet still be old enough to vote. They will have lived in a world where the MCU has always existed, and the Zune failed long ago. They won’t know what a dial tone sounds like, but they’ll not only know who Iron Man is, but also characters like Rocket Raccoon and Nebula, who were once essentially unknown, will be household names to them. I’m not saying any of that is good or bad, but I do need to go lie down.