Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Clip Introduces a Second Ghost Rider, Is It Johnny Blaze?

Ghost Rider has been a huge hit onAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.this season. One of the only perceivable problems, if it can be called that, is that theGhost Riderthat has been featured isn’t the classic Johnny Blaze version of the character. Well, last night’s episode “The Good Samaritan” may very well have fixed that.

Fair warning, this story will contain spoilers forAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so read on at your own risk. During the episode, we finally got to see howGabriel Luna’sRobbie Reyesgot his Ghost Rider powers. Granted, the episode took some serious liberties and changed a lot from the origin that was portrayed in the 2014Ghost Ridercomic book series. However, that origin portrayed on the show definitely included another Ghost Rider and it looks like it was the original, Mr. Johnny Blaze. The officialTwitteraccount forAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.even tweeted out a gif of the new Ghost Rider to help tease the reveal after the episode aired.

We can’t be certain that the other Ghost Rider who saved Robbie Reyes in the episode wasJohnny Blaze, but he seems like the most likely candidate. There is another more modern Ghost Rider by the name of Danny Ketch, but even bringing in Robbie Reyes as opposed to Johnny Blaze to start things off was a bit unexpected, so it would definitely be a stretch to thinkAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.would bring in a second rate version of the character. It is also possible that this was just a fun little Easter Egg for Marvel fans and that it won’t really flesh out beyond this origin story for Robbie Reyes. But it is interesting that they officially introduced the idea of multiple Ghost Riders into the equation.

Johnny Blaze is by far the most well-known version of the Ghost Rider character from the Marvel Comics. The character debuted in 1972 and was portrayed as a motorcycle stuntman who makes a deal with the Devil to save the life of his mentor. He then finds himself cursed to become a superpowered flaming skeleton that has to exact Hell’s judgment on sinners and evildoers, quite often against his will.Nicolas Cageplayed the character in two different movies,Ghost Riderand the much-malignedGhost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Marvel Studios got the rights back to the character a while back and decided that the best place for him was onAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4.

There had been some speculation thatGabriel Lunamight be getting his own Robbie ReyesGhost Riderspinoff series, since the character has been so well received thus far. It also seemed like sinceMarvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.used Robbie Reyes, that might leave the door open for Marvel to use Johnny Blaze elsewhere, either in a rebooted movie or perhaps a Netflix series. We’ll have to see how or if this new Ghost Rider fleshes out as the rest ofAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.season 4 unfolds. For now, you can watch the clip from last night’s episode below.