‘The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus Wants to Play Ghost Rider or Silver Surfer

The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus says it would be “fun” to play Marvel superheroes Ghost Rider or Silver Surfer.

“Ghost Rider would be fun. Silver Surfer would be fun,” Reedus said when asked which Marvel role he’d take during Walker Stalker Con’s ‘An Evening with Norman & Jeffrey’ event, where he appeared for an intimate evening with fans alongside Walking Dead co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

“Silver Surfer is awesome,” Morgan added.

A real-life bike enthusiast, Reedus headlines AMC reality docu-series Ride with Norman Reedus, which sees the star travel the globe at the handles of a motorcycle — the go-to method of transportation adopted by Reedus’ crossbow-wielding zombie apocalypse survivor Daryl Dixon.

In the Marvel Comics, the character most associated with the mantle of Ghost Rider is motorcycle daredevil and stuntman-turned-supernatural anti-hero Johnny Blaze, played previously by Nicolas Cage in 2007’s Ghost Rider and 2011 sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

The rights have since reverted from Sony to Disney-owned Marvel Studios, allowing Blaze to appear in the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe, home to the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Blaze’s Ghost Rider made a cameo appearance — only as a leather jacket-sporting skeleton with a flaming head — in TV’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., where Blaze’s CG-generated alter ego was played by stuntman Tom McComas.

The Silver Surfer — the silvery, space-surfing former herald of planet-consuming alien Galactus — last appeared in the 2007 Fox-produced Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, performed by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne.

A longtime ally of both the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, the character is expected to be rebooted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe once Disney’s $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets is completed, allowing former Fox-owned characters to be integrated into the Marvel Studios fold.

Reedus would be the latest major Walking Dead star to board the connected franchise: former Shane Walsh actor Jon Bernthal now stars as gun-toting vigilante Frank Castle in The Punisher, and Michonne star Danai Gurira stood out as Wakandan warrior Okoye in Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War. The latter brought in Ross Marquand as the apparition-like Red Skull, taking over a role abandoned by Hugo Weaving.

The Walking Dead returns with its ninth season Sunday, October 7 on AMC.