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After sitting out 2025, Marvel Studios roared back to Comic-Con with a vengeance this year. Marvel returned to Hall H to give thousands of eager fans a glimpse of the future of the MCU. Among the big announcements, we learned that Ryan Gosling is starring in a Ghost Rider movie, and also that Black Panther III will star David Jonsson as the son of the late T’Challa.
Both of those announcements raise some key questions. And that’s not all. What are we to make of the new Avengers: Doomsday footage that was shown? And what was the deal with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool appearance? As the dust of Comic-Con settles, let’s break down the four biggest burning questions we have from the Marvel Studios panel.
Which Ghost Rider Is Ryan Gosling Playing?
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige kicked off the panel with the bombshell reveal that Ryan Gosling is joining the MCU and starring in a Ghost Rider movie. Due out in 2028, the film will be directed by Gosling’s Star Wars: Starfighter collaborator Shawn Levy.
Those details are really all we know about the upcoming film right now. There’s nothing yet regarding the plot or villain of the film. Most crucially, we don’t actually know which character Gosling is playing. If you know anything about Ghost Rider, you’ll know that there are quite a few options here.
So which Marvel hero is Gosling playing? The most obvious choice is Johnny Blaze. This character was the original Ghost Rider in the comics (in terms of publication date, not Marvel Universe chronology), and for many fans he remains the standard by which all other Ghost Riders are judged.
Technically, Johnny already made a small MCU appearance, assuming we’re still counting the TV series Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD as MCU canon. Johnny (played by stunt actor Tom McComas) briefly appears in the episode “The Good Samaritan,” where he rescues Gabriel Luna’s Robbie Reyes and transfers the Ghost Rider power to him. Does that make Marvel less eager to use the character here, or will they simply continue to ignore Agents of SHIELD going forward?
The other most likely option is Johnny’s estranged brother Danny Ketch. Whereas Johnny was the de facto Ghost Rider in the ‘70s and ‘80s comics, Danny supplanted him in the ‘90s, arguably attracting a bigger fanbase in the process. This character might be more attractive to Marvel, given that he lacks the Agents of SHIELD baggage but still offers everything fans expect from a hero called Ghost Rider.
There are other, more esoteric characters Marvel could focus on, of course. They could cast Gosling as some version of Phantom Rider, the Wild West-era version of the character. Or they could go really left field and make a Cosmic Ghost Rider movie. Cosmic Ghost Rider is an alternate-universe version of Frank Castle who becomes the herald of Galactus (long story). Jon Bernthal probably wouldn’t be happy about that idea, though.
What Made Doctor Doom Turn Evil?
Marvel just recently debuted the first full-length trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, but they saved some exclusive footage for those in Hall H. The scenes shown at the Marvel panel offer some valuable insight into the mindset and motivations of Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom, revealing he didn’t always use to be such a bad guy.
This footage is partially narrated by Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm, who remarks, “Victor was always the smartest guy in every room. He used to be kind. He used to be caring. Everything he loved was taken from him. I knew he was lost, but I didn’t know that he was broken.”
That monologue tells us a lot. It confirms that there is indeed an existing history between Doom and the Fantastic Four, and also that Downey’s character does indeed hail from Earth-828. It also hints that said history isn’t necessarily as antagonistic as it is in the comics. It sounds like Doom used to be a decent enough guy, before a terrible tragedy pushed him over the edge.
The question is what tragedy? What horrible fate befell the ruler of Latveria? Did he snap after suffering that proverbial “one bad day” the Joker is always going on about?
The Avengers: Doomsday poster Marvel released alongside the trailer might give us some clues. There, we see Doom kneeling before a mural depicting a planet and a woman and child surrounded by angels. We’re assuming this is meant to represent Doom’s family. Were they killed in some horrific accident?
The costume on display at SDCC shows a scarf of some sort wrapped around Doom’s arm. Is that a tribute to his wife? Is Doom motivated by a desire to get them back? Is that his real motivation for forging Battleworld in Avengers: Secret Wars?
This is all compelling food for thought as we count the days until Doomsday’s December 2026 release.
What Role Does Deadpool Have in Avengers: Doomsday?
Marvel brought out a significant number of the cast of Avengers: Doomsday for the panel, including Downey, Chris Evans, and even Hayley Atwell (confirming that Peggy Carter will appear alongside Steve Rogers in the film). But they went one step further by hiding another A-Lister in the audience until just the right moment.
That’s when Ryan Reynolds made his presence known. Reynolds emerged wearing a gray version of the Deadpool costume. For those not familiar with the comics, Deadpool wears that suit in Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force series. It’s meant to be a more rugged and stealthy alternative to the traditional Deadpool costume, perfect for those clandestine missions with Wolverine, Psylocke, Archangel, and Fantomex.
Reynolds then peppered the panelists with questions, starting with one about that cryptic scene in Deadpool & Wolverine where we see Thor crying over Deadpool’s lifeless body. Paul Rudd jokingly retorted that Thor is a Wrexham fan, but it is interesting to see Marvel drawing attention to that scene two years later. Reynolds also asked when Doomsday starts filming, only to be told it’s already wrapped.
Interestingly, at no point did Feige or anyone else on the panel come out and confirm that Reynolds’ Wade Wilson is part of the Doomsday cast, but we’re assuming that’s meant to be the takeaway from his Comic-Con appearance. That raises the all-important question – what role is Deadpool meant to play in this epic superhero crossover? How does this oddball fit into what is already an incredibly packed ensemble cast?
We assume it’s not merely a case of Deadpool fighting alongside the X-Men of Earth-10005. The X-Men have never been shy about showing disdain for Deadpool. But given his prior history with the TVA, it could be that Wade has some other part to play in the losing battle to prevent the Incursions from annihilating the multiverse.
There’s one other key question here. If Reynolds is appearing as Deadpool in Doomsday, does that mean Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine will be joining him? We certainly hope so, but Marvel may be trying to keep that under wraps until the film actually hits theaters.
How Is David Jonsson’s Toussaint an Adult in Black Panther III?
In the grand tradition of Apple’s keynote presentations, Feige ended the Hall H panel with one of those “just one more thing” curveballs. The panel ended with the revelation that Ryan Coogler is returning to direct Black Panther III, with the sequel dated for December 15, 2028. Letitia Wright’s Shuri and Winston Duke’s M’Baku are both also returning.
That wasn’t the real bombshell, however. That came with the reveal that Alien: Romulus star David Jonsson has been cast as the adult version of Toussaint, the secret son of the late Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa. Black Panther III is apparently a coming-of-age story for Toussaint as the character embraces his role as the new Black Panther and possible king of Wakanda.
There’s a huge and very obvious problem here. When we first met the character in the post-credits scene of 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Toussaint was just a young boy (played by Divine Love Konadu-Sun). Jonsson is 32 years old. The MCU unfolds more or less in real time, so how is Toussaint going from child to full-grown adult in the six years between Black Panther movies?
We can only assume that this is somehow due to the fallout of Avengers: Secret Wars. In the 2015 Secret Wars comic, Doom creates Battleworld out of the fragments of various dead universes, only for Reed Richards and his family to recreate the multiverse at the end of the story. In the comics, the end result was that Earth-616 was recreated pretty much as it had existed before the Incursions, but that may not be the case for the MCU Earth-616.
In fact, rumors have swirled for years that Marvel may be looking to use Secret Wars as a catalyst to streamline and overhaul the MCU, plugging holes and addressing problems that have cropped up over time. Feige himself hinted as much in a recent interview, saying “[Secret Wars] is a beginning. It will establish a streamlined, simplified, single universe that audiences can keep up with. Some things will be familiar, but many, many things will be entirely new.”
In short, the process of destroying and rebuilding reality in Secret Wars may create a scenario where a version of Toussaint from a future timeline or alternate universe is folded into the present-day MCU. At that point, the character will have to confront a world still mourning the death of T’Challa. Where does he go from there? Does he claim the Black Panther mantle from his Aunt Shuri? Does he challenge M’Baku for the Wakandan throne?
This also suggests that Marvel may no longer be looking to position Wright as the new face of the franchise. Maybe that has something to do with Wright’s infamous behind-the-scenes drama, or simply the slightly more muted response to Wakanda Forever compared to the original film. Marvel clearly still isn’t interested in recasting the T’Challa role, but they seem to want a character with a more fundamental link to T’Challa to carry the series forward. Hopefully that’s the right call.
What are your biggest questions in the aftermath of the Marvel Studios panel? Let us know in the comments below. And for more, learn about the mysterious Latverian witches featured at Comic-Con and see our full breakdown of the Avengers: Doomsday trailer.
Photo Credit: Jesse Grant
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
