Marvel’s post-Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars future just got a little clearer. Last month, Marvel Studios confirmed Ryan Gosling would star as Ghost Rider in a 2028 solo film, but unlike Black Panther 3, the company didn’t specify when exactly it would land in theaters in 2028.
On Monday, Marvel answered that question: Ghost Rider is now slated for July 28, 2028. It’s the last Friday in July, a release slot that has done well for Marvel’s biggest movies the past few years.
This means Ghost Rider will be the second Marvel Cinematic Universe film to be released after Avengers: Secret Wars arrives in December 2027. The combination of Doomsday and Secret Wars are expected to drastically shake up the MCU, though Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige hasn’t quite called them a full-on reboot.
The hotly anticipated X-Men reboot will be first on Marvel’s 2028 docket. A handful of mutants were just confirmed at the D23 fan event, such as Kit Connor as Cyclops, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, and Inde Navarette as Rogue. X-Men will be released May 5, 2028.
Ghost Rider will then follow in July, and like Gosling’s Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Starfighter, it’s being directed by Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine). We know even less about it than we do X-Men, as even which Ghost Rider Gosling will play has yet to be revealed. Like Ant-Man, there have been several iterations of Ghost Rider throughout Marvel Comics’ history. Johnny Blaze is perhaps the most well known, and Nic Cage portrayed the character on screen twice. A Ghost Rider has already technically joined the MCU as Robbie Reyes, portrayed by Gabriel Luna, was featured in TV series Agents of SHIELD.
The last three Julys have seen some of Marvel’s biggest films come out. Deadpool & Wolverine dominated July 2024, The Fantastic Four: First Steps kicked off Phase 6 (Remember when phase distinctions mattered?) in 2025, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day broke box office records when it came out last month.
2028’s third and final (for now) Marvel Studios film will be Black Panther 3, slated for Dec. 15, 2028. It will star David Jonsson as the son of T’Challa, who we met as a kid at the end of Black Panther 2. Letitia Wright’s Shuri and Winston Duke’s M’Baku are expected to return, and you’ll see them both in December’s Doomsday.
Marvel also has an untitled movie scheduled for Nov. 9, 2029. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that will be. That Nova movie that Feige off-handedly confirmed? The long-awaited Shang-Chi sequel? A Paste-Pot Pete solo film? OK, probably not that last one.
