Ghost Rider may have featured in a pair of forgettable Nicolas Cage movies and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut is what Johnny Blaze fans are longing to see. With Marvel seemingly adding horror elements to the franchise during Phase 4, there’s been renewed hope that the supernatural anti-hero could one day be tearing up MCU roads, and the latest reports suggest that this could be happening sooner than expected.
According to notable leaker Mikey Sutton, Ghost Rider may be handed a cameo in the upcoming Blade reboot followed by a more substantial appearance in a future sequel to the vampire pic. Apparently, the plan is to have Blade join forces with Johnny Blaze and several other Marvel anti-heroes to form the Midnight Sons. Other members of the team reportedly include Jennifer Kale, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night and Nadeen Hassan aka Glyph.
That being said, we’ve previously heard that Blaze could debut in Doctor Strange 2, so whether plans have now changed or perhaps Sutton’s intel is wrong, we don’t yet know. Either way, though, it sounds like he’ll be making his entrance soon.
This isn’t the first we’ve heard of a Midnight Sons movie, of course. And given Marvel’s plans to add horror to their cinematic universe beginning with 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, there may be some substance to these reports. The Sons are the kind of heroes the Marvel Cinematic Universe will need to combat the rise of supernatural threats, after all, and it sounds like there are plenty of those on the horizon.
Earlier reports about a Sons movie mentioned the Punisher as a potential team member as well and, according to Sutton’s sources, the gun-toting anti-hero could still be included in the project as the team line-up is merely provisional. Presumably, Marvel will need to decide whether to integrate Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle into the MCU before these plans can take shape.
It’s certainly feasible that the studio will start introducing characters like Ghost Rider after movies including the Doctor Strange sequel and Blade make the franchise several shades darker, and it would be interesting to see a version of the Midnight Sons assemble on the big screen as a supernatural alternative to the Avengers. Let’s just hope there’s more to the MCU’s Johnny Blaze than a CGI-rendered flaming skull and a badass motorcycle.
