Before becoming the new Terminator Villain in Terminator: Dark Fate, Gabriel Luna had already won the hearts of many comicbook and Marvel fans by embodying the role of Ghost Rider through the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
While some actors on the career ladder might not look back, after going from a TV series to a giant tent-pole Hollywood movie like T:DF, Gabriel Luna is taking a humble approach and has maintained an affinity with his Ghost Rider fans and his social media interactions also suggest (even through the production of Dark Fate) that he was in no rush to separate himself from the character, or the possibility of a return to the role.
Variety reports:
“Variety has learned exclusively that Luna will star in the recently announced Hulu live-action series based on the comic book character. This will mark the second time that Luna has played Ghost Rider, previously appearing as the character in the ABC-Marvel series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” However, sources stress that this will be a completely new iteration of the character in no way connected to the “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” storyline.”
Variety.com
Gabriel managing to keep hold of the Ghost Rider role in this way says something very positive about his career, while also being a unique feat in such a fickle industry that might be starting to move away from conveyorbelt projects and may be finally starting to understand the importance of longevity and connectivity to audiences.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is shown on ABC, so in Hulu’s new Ghost Rider project there will be legalities/rights issues that will prevent the ABC iteration of the character and storylines from appearing in this new live-action series.
The biggest challenge now lies in what Hulu is going to do with the project and balancing it creatively. They, of course, need to avoid any risk of irritating current fans of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the canon aspects of that could confuse and annoy some fans.
The utter disregard for canon – post Terminator 2: Judgment Day, was one of the biggest hindrances for the contintued success of the Terminator franchise.
It’s no secret that the big-screen outings of Ghost Rider with Nicolas Cage failed to hit the mark and a proposed and planned Ghost Rider 3 never happened…
Cage has gone on the record to state he thinks a new actor needs to take on the project and for it to be Rated R.
Nicolas Cage told Yahoo Entertainment:
“Had ‘Ghost Rider’ been made in R-rated format, the way they had the guts to do with ‘Deadpool,’ and they did it again today, I’m fairly certain it would be enormously successful,”
Nicolas Cage
A big problem with Ghost Rider, be it with the character of Johnny Blaze (depicted by Cage) or Robbie Reyes (Luna), is that it connects back to either; the selling of the soul to the devil (Johnny Blaze) or by being possessed by the spirit of a dead serial killing, Satanic Russian mob hit-man… this stuff should not be PG-13, just like machines programmed to kill should not be PG-13.
If Terminator: Dark Fate is a huge success, and if Hulu’s Ghost Rider reboot hits the mark, could Gabriel Luna be on track to become the definitive big screen adaptation of the character – and will that be a successful R Rated movie or a PG-13 cop out?
Maybe Tim Miller could bring Johnny Blaze and Robbie Reyes together for an R Rated Ghostrider movie after Dark Fate… Maybe that ‘penance stare’ moment could be a terrifying spectacle to behold.