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Even 'The Walking Dead' showrunners want Norman Reedus to be Marvel's new Ghost Rider
Scott M. Gimple and Angela Kang are fanning the flames (pun intended).
Norman Reedus' onscreen tenure as the gruff, motorcycle-riding bad boy Daryl Dixon on AMC's The Walking Dead may become too hard to ignore for Kevin Feige and the other creatives at Marvel Studios.
In recent days, the internet has once again called for Reedus to be cast as the next iteration of Ghost Rider in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the actor himself is helping fan the flames (pun intended) by liking and/or sharing posts like this one, which not only purports that an actor has already been chosen, but also features a piece of fan art depicting Reedus as the Spirit of Vengeance.
Even key Walking Dead executives like series showrunner/executive producer Angela Kang and brand manager Scott M. Gimple have added their two cents to the fiery conversation. "Just saying… Norman Reedus as Ghost Rider WOULD be rad," tweeted Kang. Gimple replied to her poster with a nod to Ghost Rider's weapon of choice — "He already does A+ chain work" — while also sharing a .gif of Daryl taking out three undead walkers with a large rusty chain.
Nabbing a high-profile role via social media isn't some far-fetched pipe dream these days. Simu Liu is living proof of that, having voiced his interest in playing Shang-Chi when news of the character's solo movie first broke in 2018. And this isn't the first time Reedus has broached the topic of his desire to join Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
"The Ghost Rider conversation has been coming up for years, and yeah, tell them to put me in it," he told ComicBook.com over the summer. He later continued: "That would be great. So, I don't know, call somebody, make that happen. I want to do it. I want a fire skull. I want my face to turn into a fire skull and whip a chain around. That would be great."
To date, only two actors have portrayed Ghost Rider in the realm of live-action: Nicolas Cage (playing Johnny Blaze across two feature-length film adaptations) and Gabriel Luna (playing Robbie Reyes in ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show).
Luna was all set to reprise the role in his own spinoff for Hulu, but the project was canceled over creative differences not long before it was announced that Marvel Television would be brought under the jurisdiction of Feige & co. This seems to suggest that the MCU has its own grand plans for Satan's skull-headed proxy, who truly embodies the title of "Hells Angels."
