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Celebrity Casting

Connor Storrie in Talks to Play Ghost Rider Villain Opposite Ryan Gosling

Storrie, the breakout lead of HBO's Heated Rivalry, is reportedly in line to play the co-lead villain in Marvel's Ghost Rider. The franchise has a specific, unscripted connection to Gosling's personal life.

By Jude Marlow, Editor Published October 27, 2026 at 9:30 PM PST
Ryan Gosling at BFI Southbank 2023 and Connor Storrie at the Heated Rivalry Toronto premiere 2025, duo portrait panels with thermal treatment
Photo credit (left): Raph_PH / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (Ryan Gosling at BFI Southbank, Dec 2023). Photo credit (right): Tara Taralynn (TKA201) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Connor Storrie at Heated Rivalry Toronto premiere, Nov 2025). Thermal duo treatment by Ad Watch News.

Connor Storrie, the breakout lead of HBO's Heated Rivalry, is in talks to play the co-lead villain in Marvel's Ghost Rider opposite Ryan Gosling, according to reports published on October 27 by TheWrap, The Playlist, Deadline, and Variety. No character name has been disclosed. Marvel Studios does not comment on casting, and the deal has not been finalized.

The franchise has an unscripted connection to Gosling's personal life. Eva Mendes played Roxanne Simpson, the love interest in the 2007 Ghost Rider starring Nicolas Cage. Gosling met Mendes five years later on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), and the two have been partners since, sharing two daughters. When Marvel announced Gosling's own Ghost Rider casting at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2026, Mendes posted a tribute captioned "Love, Roxy," a direct nod to her 2007 character. Marvel has not announced whether she will return to the franchise. The franchise is now being led by the long-term partner of one of its original stars.

From Heated Rivalry to the MCU

Storrie is best known for playing Ilya Rozanov, the Russian ice hockey star whose affair with rival team captain Hudson Williams drives the plot of Heated Rivalry. The series averaged 10.6 million viewers in its first season on HBO Max and is heading into a second season. Storrie also appeared in Joker: Folie à Deux and is attached to A24's Peaked alongside Emma Mackey, Simone Ashley, and Dua Lipa. Playing a Marvel villain is a different scale entirely.

Marvel's casting logic is visible in the choice. Storrie broke through in a prestige queer romance drama, a format that generates the kind of intense viewer attachment that Marvel has increasingly tried to import into its franchise. Gosling himself followed a similar trajectory: critical arthouse films first, then franchise work. Deadpool and Wolverine, Shawn Levy's last MCU film, crossed $1.33 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time.

Gosling's Image Shift

Gosling's Ghost Rider casting is the most significant image shift of his current career phase. His turn as Ken in Barbie (2023) earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a period of heightened brand attention: he was identifiable, commercially safe, and associated with self-deprecating warmth. Ghost Rider operates in a different register, a flaming-skull vigilante operating outside the law. Brands that signed him for his post-Ken persona will eventually face a renewal decision against a darker superhero lead.

Director Shawn Levy is reuniting with Gosling after their collaboration on Star Wars: Starfighter, a Disney and Lucasfilm production scheduled for May 2027. Jonathan Tropper wrote the Ghost Rider screenplay, and cinematographer Linus Sandgren, known for La La Land and No Time to Die, will shoot on film. Production is scheduled to begin in early 2027 in Nevada, Oregon, and California. The film is set for release on July 28, 2028.

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The Eva Mendes angle is not incidental. Mendes was the face of the Ghost Rider franchise's human story in 2007. Her current partner is now the franchise lead. That is either a remarkable coincidence that Marvel's marketing team will use heavily, or it is a coincidence they will quietly let sit. Either way, the story writes itself in a way that few casting decisions do, with or without any deliberate brand engineering.

For Storrie, a confirmed deal would mark a graduation from prestige streaming into the global franchise tier. His Heated Rivalry role built an audience that skews young, engaged, and digitally fluent, the same demographic Marvel targets with its newer entries. Whether the villain role is a one-film appearance or the beginning of a longer arc has not been indicated.

What to Watch

Marvel has not confirmed Storrie's involvement and has not named his character. Production begins early 2027. The film releases July 28, 2028. Mendes's potential return as Roxanne Simpson remains unconfirmed speculation. Any formal casting announcement from Marvel or Storrie's representatives would clarify the deal's status.

Ad Watch News is an independent commentary site with no affiliation with Ryan Gosling, Connor Storrie, Marvel Studios, or any brand mentioned here. This piece draws on published sources listed below.

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