If you’ve been following what Marvel’s been up to on the comic book side of things for the past few years, then surely you know that they’ve been having a ton of fun with the Punisher. Not only did he end up donning the War Machine armor in his own ongoing series at one point, but he’s also been revealed to be the Cosmic Ghost Rider in the incredibly popular “King Thanos” story arc.
In fact, there’s been so much love and support for the character since his debut that Marvel now wants to bring him into the MCU. According to sources close to We Got This Covered – the same ones who told us Taskmaster will be the villain of Black Widow, and that the studio was developing She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel shows, all of which have since been confirmed – Kevin Feige is keen on introducing Cosmic Ghost Rider into the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point.
It’s unclear when exactly he’ll debut, but our sources say most likely it’ll be in Phase 5. However, given how quickly things can change with the MCU release slate, Phase 6 might be a possibility as well. In any case, we’re hearing he’ll be introduced in one of the upcoming cosmic arcs/storylines, which only makes sense.
Unfortunately, details beyond that remain hazy and clearly, this isn’t something we’ll be seeing happen anytime soon. But again, Kevin Feige is definitely interested in bringing the character to theaters and given how popular he’s been in the comic books, it’s easy to see why the producer wants to capitalize on that.
For those who may not be familiar with this version of Ghost Rider, the below synopsis from Wikipedia offers a brief overview of how he came to be:
Cosmic Ghost Rider was created by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw. In the alternate reality of Earth-TRN666, where Thanos conquered all the Universe, Frank Castle’s early life was seemingly similar to that of the Frank Castle of the Earth-616 Universe. However, when Thanos came to Earth, the Punisher was one of the last casualties during the last stand of the heroes and his soul was subsequently sent to Hell. Willing to give anything in order to punish Thanos for slaughtering his planet, the Punisher signed a demonic deal with Mephisto and became the Ghost Rider.
When he returned to Earth, however, Thanos was already gone and everything on the planet was dead. Roaming endlessly and undying with no one to kill or love, the Ghost Rider spent the next countless years alone. He eventually began to lose his mind when even Mephisto fell silent to his calls.
When a badly injured Galactus arrived on Earth seeking help against Thanos, unaware that the population of Earth had already been killed by him, the Ghost Rider offered the dead planet to him in exchange for the chance of punishing the Mad Titan as his herald which the Great Devourer accepted. Bestowed with the Power Cosmic, Ghost Rider became Cosmic Ghost Rider.
As you can see, it’s a pretty out-there concept, but with Marvel said to be taking a deeper dive into the more cosmic side of their universe in future phases, it’s not hard to imagine this playing out on the big screen. Not to mention that we already know Galactus is on his way to the MCU as well.
And though the Thanos-related part of Cosmic Ghost Rider‘s origins obviously can’t play out on in the movies given that the Mad Titan is dead in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we’re hearing that this won’t be an issue, as Marvel plans to make some changes to the character’s backstory so that he can fit comfortably into what’s already been seen on screen.
Again, this is still a long ways away, so it’s unlikely we’ll hear anything concrete on it for a while yet, and as usual, Feige may choose to deny it publicly until it’s confirmed, but as we said above, our sources have been pretty reliable when it comes to Marvel intel lately and while we wait to hear more from them, be sure to leave a comment down below letting us know who you’d like to see in the role when it comes time to cast it.