Ryan Gosling has officially traded the Hail Mary for a hell cycle, and his wife Eva Mendes already has the footage to prove Marvel made the right call. Following the actor’s Ghost Rider announcement at San Diego Comic-Con, Mendes looked back to one of his most memorable movie entrances and found a supernatural superhero hiding in plain sight.
On Instagram, Mendes shared a fan edit built around the opening long take from The Place Beyond the Pines. The clip, which you can see below, follows Gosling’s tattooed motorcycle stunt rider Luke Glanton as he walks through a carnival and climbs into the Globe of Death. This version adds Kavinsky’s “Nightcall” and places the new Ghost Rider logo over his back. She captioned her post, “Love, Roxy.” Consider that a very stylish spousal endorsement.
The edit works almost suspiciously well. Gosling is shirtless, covered in tattoos and moving through the frame with the quiet confidence of someone who knows the motorcycle waiting ahead can do something dangerous. It also helps that Luke Glanton is already a stunt rider. In Derek Cianfrance’s film, he performs inside a metal cage before turning to bank robbery, using a motorcycle as both his signature tool and getaway vehicle. Swap the bleached hair for a flaming skull, and the connection between Luke and Johnny Blaze suddenly becomes all too obvious.
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For those who may not know, The Place Beyond the Pines centers on fathers, sons and the consequences one generation leaves for the next. Even those heavier themes would fit comfortably inside a tortured Ghost Rider story, particularly one interested in the price that comes with striking a supernatural bargain.
Mendes’ “Love, Roxy” sign-off makes the post even better. She played Roxanne Simpson opposite Nicolas Cage in 2007’s Ghost Rider, giving her a direct connection to the character long before her partner joined the MCU. The actress later described another collection of Place Beyond the Pines moments as “Ghost Rider in a parallel universe,” which feels exactly right.
There is also a sweet personal layer to the edit. Mendes and Gosling met and fell in love while making The Place Beyond the Pines, so his new Marvel movie role loops back through the movie that brought them together. The Drive star once played a motorcycle stunt rider opposite the woman who previously starred in a Ghost Rider movie, and now he is inheriting the flaming skull from Nic Cage. What a perfectly fantastic Hollywood callback.
Marvel Studios announced the Project Hail Mary star’s standalone Ghost Rider movie during its Hall H presentation. Shawn Levy, who recently wrapped his first collab with Gosling on Star Wars: Starfighter, will direct, and Jonathan Tropper is writing the screenplay. Ghost Rider is scheduled for a 2028 release.
There will be time to debate the flaming skull, the leather jacket and whether Gosling can match Cage’s wonderfully unhinged energy. For the moment, Mendes has made the cleanest casting argument possible. And yes, girl. We see it too.
We still have some time before Gosling suits up as Johnny Blaze, but fans can revisit his 2026 movie calendar sci-fi hit Project Hail Mary with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. Anyone looking to prepare for his MCU arrival can also stream the Marvel movies in order with a Disney+ subscription.