The first three episodes of Marvel Studios’ Ironheart suggest that Ghost Rider’s MCU debut may be coming sooner rather than later.
Ironheart is the new television series created by Chinaka Hodge that sees Dominique Thorne reprise her role as Riri Williams after previously starring in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The show has so far introduced a number of exciting new characters into the MCU, including Anthony Ramos’ Parker Robbins/The Hood and Alden Ehrenreich’s Ezekiel “Zeke” Stane.
The first three episodes of Ironheart are now available to stream on Disney+, while the final three will be released on July 1, 2025.
How does Ironheart tie into Ghost Rider?
One of the big plot points in this initial trilogy of Ironheart episodes revolves around the origins of Parker Robbins’ superpowers. It’s quickly established that the powers come from the mysterious red hood he often dons, though that leads to an obvious, bigger question: Where does the hood come from?
It hasn’t been stated out loud, as of yet, that Mephisto is the one who is responsible; however, many fans are predicting that he’s the source, as the writing quite literally seems to be on the wall.
It’s no secret that Sacha Baron Cohen has been rumored to play Mephisto for years. Parker alludes to making some kind of mysterious deal with the devil in the show’s second episode. Even some early Ironheart reviews and promo material have hinted at the arrival of Mephisto. It’s safe to assume that he’s coming.
In Marvel Comics, Mephisto is a villain who has strong ties to Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider. Mephisto, in fact, is a key part of Blaze’s origin story, as, while the relationship quickly turns sour, Johnny gets his powers from the demon character. This is depicted in the 2007 Ghost Rider movie starring Nicolas Cage. If Ironheart is introducing Mephisto into the MCU — especially if it’s in a smaller capacity and they’re planning to use the character in a bigger way in future projects — Ghost Rider may be coming not long after him.
Is Ironheart foreshadowing Ghost Rider’s introduction to the MCU?
At this time, there has been no official announcement from Marvel about a Ghost Rider project. Rumors have swirled for years that he’s going to show up, be it in a Midnight Sons movie or solo outing. Since Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were announced, there has also been much chatter that Ghost Rider could be making his MCU debut in there.
A while back, there was another rumor going around that Mephisto could get his own Disney+ special similar to 2022’s Werewolf by Night. Nothing much came of these rumors, but let’s not count out the chance that Marvel has been working on this project in secret. This is a company that loves secrets, after all, and stranger things have happened. They just managed to surprise fans with the Thunderbolts/New Avengers reveal.
If this special were to really be happening, and if it were to come out at some point before the forthcoming Avengers movies, then it’d be the perfect chance to set up the Johnny Blaze character so he could show up in Doomsday and Secret Wars. Of course, there’d be the matter of casting Johnny, but they’ve still got plenty of time to do that if this special were to come out in the fall of 2026.
It’s all speculation for now, but Ironheart may wind up being an essential MCU project for years to come if this really is the gateway to Ghost Rider’s introduction.
