Owing to the popularity of the Ghost Rider franchise, Marvel took the initiative to introduce a TV series, Agents of SHIELD. While the film starred Nicolas Cage in the titular character, the TV show featured actor and producer, Gabriel Luna as Robby Reyes/Ghost Rider. With an 8.2 IMDb rating, the TV series did pretty well. Therefore, it encouraged two new Marvel TV spin-off series, Ghost Rider and Helstrom in 2019.
However, months after the announcement, Ghost Rider was scrapped by Marvel while Helstrom debuted its first season in 2020 only to get canceled later on. While fans wonder why Ghost Rider never debuted, Luna revealed that a mighty team-up, the likes of Avengers, was anticipated. Sadly, it never came to fruition.
Gabriel Luna disclosed no-show Ghost Rider’s plot
The 41-year-old star played Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider from the comic books, unlike Hollywood’s Johnny Blaze, in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. Given its success, Robbie Reyes was set to get his own solo series with Ghost Rider, starring Gabriel Luna. Months later, Hulu voted against the TV show already in its pre-production, allowing only Helstrom to debut.
Disheartened by the show’s cancellation, Gabriel Luna revealed his high hopes for the iconic plotline, resembling Netflix’s Defender. Luna told Comicbook.com,
“I remember when I was pitching stuff, I had a really awesome idea that would have kept Robbie in L.A. and that would have pitted us against classic Ghost Rider villains. And I think it would have led up to [Lilith] 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.”
The narrative would unfold with all the titular characters teaming up against the Mother of Demons, Lilith. Marvel Studios chose to prioritize the silver screen and scrapped everything that was in development in the TV genre, which led to the show never debuting on Hulu. According to Comicbook.com, Ghost Rider had the potential to transform into a whole universe of its own, accompanied by other notable characters of the franchise.
A missed chance for Mexican-American representation
Raised in Texas, Gabriel Luna was also disappointed in the fact that it was a great opportunity for Mexican-American representation in the film industry. Ghost Rider would have been among the few features that portray a Mexican-American star in a titular superhero role. Therefore, the actor saw it as a missed chance for the cause. Sharing his insight on the matter, Luna said,
“There was a great opportunity missed for a character that was truly beloved and, for a Mexican-American superhero to be prominently displayed, ‘American’ being the operative word. I’m always trying to tell people that the goal is, of course, to have ourselves represented on screen, but beyond that, the ultimate goal, the next step is to have others who don’t look like us see themselves in us and that’s what I was hoping to achieve at that show and I think we were there.”
The Agents of SHIELD spin-off was supposed to be a reboot of the titular character, with little to no connection with the Marvel TV series. As per IGN, Luna was thrilled by the news and even shared a now-deleted post on Twitter, only to know that the show would never come to fruition later on.
