50 Fun Facts About Ghost Rider

Which future comedy star has a small part in Ghost Rider (2007) as a goth girl saved from a mugger?

Rebel Wilson was still an Australian TV comedian when the film shot there, years before Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect made her famous.

Roy Thomas said Ghost Rider's original 1972 look borrowed from a 1968 TV special jumpsuit worn by which singer?

Elvis Presley's 1968 TV special jumpsuit was Roy Thomas's starting point for the costume. Who thought of the flaming skull was later disputed between Thomas, writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog.

Which star of 1960s biker films played the demon Mephistopheles in the 2007 film Ghost Rider?

Peter Fonda, the star of the biker classic Easy Rider, joined in March 2005, a month after filming began. He said he wanted to return for the sequel, but the role went to another actor.

In a 1990s comic, Ghost Rider joined Wolverine and the Hulk in a stand-in line-up for which captured team?

The Fantastic Four had been captured by a renegade Skrull, so Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk and Ghost Rider briefly filled in as a new quartet under the old name.

Which Ghost Rider power, making victims feel the pain they caused, fails on Blackheart because he is soulless?

The Penance Stare only works in the 2007 film once Blackheart absorbs a thousand souls from a contract: the stolen souls give the Rider something to burn.

Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider introduced in 2014, drives a flaming black 1969 muscle car of which model?

A Dodge Charger replaced the motorcycle at an editor's suggestion: Marvel wanted a younger Rider who drove a car, and the idea excited creator Felipe Smith.

For the Rider's voice in Ghost Rider (2007), Nicolas Cage's lines were blended with backwards recordings of what?

Animal growls of three kinds, played backwards, were layered under the dialogue by Dane Davis, the Oscar-winning sound editor of The Matrix. The director likened the result to a mechanical lion's roar.

Which gravel-voiced Western star narrates Ghost Rider (2007) and plays the mysterious Caretaker?

Sam Elliott's Caretaker turns out to be Carter Slade, an earlier Rider, who makes one last ride alongside Johnny Blaze before fading to dust.

In Ghost Rider (2007), what name does Blackheart take after absorbing a thousand damned souls from the contract?

Legion is the name he takes once the thousand souls are within him, and they prove his undoing: a soulless demon suddenly has souls for the Rider to burn.

Which actress played Roxanne, Johnny Blaze's old love turned news reporter, in Ghost Rider (2007)?

Eva Mendes did not come back for the sequel, which moved the story to Eastern Europe and dropped Roxanne altogether.

Which actor, introduced to the director by Colin Farrell, played Mephisto's son Blackheart in Ghost Rider (2007)?

Wes Bentley plays Blackheart mostly in human form, pale and black-haired, with the demon's face only flickering through. This version can kill with a touch.

Which actor played Moreau, the hard-drinking monk who recruits Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance?

Idris Elba's Moreau was invented for the film rather than taken from the comics. He offers to lift Johnny's curse in return for protecting a boy.

Which actor played the Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider in the fourth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

Gabriel Luna was due to reprise the role in his own Hulu series, announced in 2019, but the streamer dropped the project a few months later.

Before fading to dust in Ghost Rider (2007), Carter Slade hands Johnny Blaze which weapon for the final fight?

A shotgun, a lever-action model, is Slade's parting gift. Roxanne fires it first to pull Blackheart off Johnny, then Johnny turns it on the demon himself.

In Ghost Rider (2007), a teenage Johnny Blaze signs away his soul to cure his father of which illness?

Cancer is cured overnight, exactly as promised, but Barton Blaze dies the next day in a stunt accident and Mephistopheles collects the soul anyway.

In the 2007 film Ghost Rider, at what time of day does Johnny Blaze lose his powers mid-fight with Blackheart?

Sunrise leaves him powerless, since the first film's Rider is a creature of the night. The sequel ends by letting him stay transformed in broad daylight.

Ghost Rider was created by Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog, but who came up with the name Johnny Blaze?

Stan Lee supplied the name, while Roy Thomas steered the idea away from its first form: a motorcycle villain for another title, which he judged too good to waste.

Ghost Rider's film rights returned to Marvel in 2013 from which studio, the maker of both Nicolas Cage movies?

Sony Pictures saw the rights revert after the sequel, and three years later Marvel put a new Rider into its TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

What colour are Johnny Blaze's flames at the end of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, once the spirit is healed?

Blue flames signal the spirit's return to what it once was, the Spirit of Justice, after the Rider hurls the devil back to Hell.

In Ghost Rider (2007), the Caretaker reveals he is Carter Slade, an 1800s lawman who belonged to which force?

The Texas Rangers were Slade's outfit before he became the Rider who hid the contract Blackheart wants, refusing to hand it to Mephistopheles.

Ghost Rider (2007) began filming in February 2005 at the Docklands studios in which Australian city?

Melbourne hosted the shoot, and the director planned to film before a real crowd at its Docklands Stadium before settling for a computer-generated one.

In Ghost Rider (2007), Blackheart hunts a contract for a thousand evil souls that is named after which place?

San Venganza gives the contract its name, and whoever holds it commands a thousand evil souls: enough, an earlier Rider feared, to let Mephistopheles bring Hell to Earth.

Blackheart, the Ghost Rider villain, first appeared in 1989 in the comic of which other Marvel hero?

Daredevil #270 introduced him: writer Ann Nocenti and artist John Romita Jr. had Mephisto form a son from the evil gathered in a New York town called Christ's Crown.

Which demon is bound to Johnny Blaze as Ghost Rider, recast in Spirit of Vengeance as a spirit driven mad in Hell?

Zarathos once had a cult of his own, and Mephisto, resenting the souls it cost him, defeated the demon long before binding him to Johnny Blaze.

Which directing duo, known for the Crank films, made Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance?

Neveldine and Taylor brought their Crank editor and cinematographer along, and for the first time directed a script they had not written themselves.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was shot in Turkey and which other country, home to Hunedoara Castle?

Romania supplied the castle and the Transfăgărășan mountain road, and the shoot began in the city of Sibiu using mostly local talent.

In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Ghost Rider spirit briefly leaves Robbie Reyes to possess Mack and which other agent?

Phil Coulson takes on the spirit in the season finale, while Mack carries it earlier in the same season. In the show only one person can hold the power at a time.

Which book, called the Book of Sins in the comics, drives the Ghost Rider arc of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

The Darkhold links all three chapters of the season: its magic begins the Rider's story, then feeds the android technology the agents face next.

Which actor's interest in the lead role of Ghost Rider spurred Nicolas Cage to contact the director and pitch himself?

Johnny Depp was linked to the part around 2000, and Cage, a fan of the character, contacted the director once he heard. Cage then left the project before returning in 2003.

Besides hellfire, which weapon does the 1990s Ghost Rider wear across his chest and command with his mind?

A chain became so tied to the character that Johnny Blaze, who had none in his 1970s comics, picked up the same weapon in later stories.

In the cyberpunk comic Ghost Rider 2099, hacker Zero Cochrane returns from death when his mind is downloaded into what?

A robot body, the Cybertek 101, lets the dying hacker fight on: he had uploaded his mind to cyberspace to keep stolen data from the corporation hunting him.

Mephisto, the demon who makes Johnny Blaze the Ghost Rider, is based on the tempter from which old German legend?

Faust trades his soul to Mephistopheles in the legend. Marvel's Mephisto strikes the same kind of bargain, and the 2007 film uses the demon's full legendary name.

Mephisto, the demon behind Ghost Rider's curse, debuted in 1968 as an enemy of which cosmic Marvel hero?

The Silver Surfer faced him first. Mephisto became the Rider's tormentor only later, when the Satan of Johnny Blaze's origin story was revealed to be him.

Ghost Rider joined Morbius the Living Vampire in which 1990s team of Marvel's supernatural heroes?

The Midnight Sons came together after a Ghost Rider's vision warned that Lilith, Mother of All Demons, was being resurrected and posed a great threat.

Before Johnny Blaze, Marvel's first Ghost Rider debuted in 1967 as what kind of hero, later renamed Phantom Rider?

A masked gunslinger in a glowing white costume, he rode a horse, not a motorcycle. Marvel's first new name for him, Night Rider, was dropped for its Ku Klux Klan associations.

Which actor played Roarke, the devil's human guise, in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance?

Ciarán Hinds took over the devil's role from the first film's actor, who had asked to come back. His Roarke plans to move his mind into his own young son.

Blackheart, the Ghost Rider villain, became a playable fighter in which 1995 Capcom arcade game?

Marvel Super Heroes pitted him against Thanos in a fight for the Infinity Gems, and he went on to its crossover sequels, up to Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

For Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Nicolas Cage sewed artifacts from which ancient culture into his leather jacket?

Egyptian relics were only part of it: Cage also painted his face black and white and wore black contact lenses to get into the Rider's skin.

In Ghost Rider (2007), what is the name of Johnny Blaze's custom chopper, which morphs into the flaming Hell Cycle?

Grace becomes a Hell Cycle with solid tyres wrapped in flame on screen, because the comic's wheels of pure flame made the bike look weightless.

In Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the devil revives mercenary Ray Carrigan as which villain with a rotting touch?

Blackout kept only his look from the comics, the writers admitted: the film invented his power to decay whatever he touches.

In the Ghost Rider comics, Johnny Blaze sells his soul to save which stunt-show star, his adoptive father?

Crash Simpson was cured, just as the bargain promised, then died anyway attempting to jump 22 cars. The 2007 film moved the same twist onto Johnny's birth father.

Ghost Rider (2007) set an opening record, held until 2010, for which American holiday weekend?

Presidents' Day suited it: the film took $52 million over the long weekend, and nothing beat that until the romantic comedy Valentine's Day three years later.

Which writer-director took over Ghost Rider in 2003 after Stephen Norrington left, and rewrote the script himself?

Mark Steven Johnson later said Cage was the only actor considered for the lead, and his first draft had a different villain before the studio asked for Blackheart.

Which Australian band covered the cowboy standard Ghost Riders in the Sky for the end credits of Ghost Rider (2007)?

Spiderbait got the job after befriending the director while he was filming in Australia.

Which villain led the first draft of Ghost Rider (2007) until the studio feared confusion with a DC character?

Scarecrow is a real Ghost Rider foe, a contortionist turned thief, but the studio expected audiences to think of Batman's enemy and asked for Blackheart instead.

Johnny Blaze first rode as Ghost Rider in 1972, in issue 5 of which tryout comic for new characters?

Marvel Spotlight was a tryout book: it let the publisher test a new feature without the cost of launching a series. Ghost Rider passed and got his own title in 1973.

Robbie Reyes becomes Ghost Rider when his car is possessed by the ghost of which serial-killer uncle?

Eli Morrow first poses as a murder victim wanting justice. In truth he was a Satanic killer shot dead by police in 1999, and he fights Robbie for control.

In 1975, writer Tony Isabella added Ghost Rider to the line-up of which new Marvel super-team?

The Champions needed him for a practical reason: editors insisted the team include at least one character who already had a series of his own.

In Ghost Rider (2007), Blackheart seeks help from the Hidden, three beings tied to air, earth and water, who are what?

Fallen angels named Gressil, Abigor and Wallow serve Blackheart, and the Rider destroys them one by one before the final showdown.

Which actor shaved his head and trained with swords for three months to play a monk in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance?

Christopher Lambert plays Methodius, head of the monastery sheltering the boy, who turns on the child and tries to kill him.