It's Time For Marvel To Give Ghost Rider His Own TV Show

05/27/2017 04:38 pm EDT

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD wrapped up its fourth season last week and, while the season finale episode left plenty of questions unanswered, the one that most hangs in the air, "Where is our Ghost Rider spinoff?"

Robbie Reyes, played by Gabriel Luna, was introduced to Marvel's Agents of SHIELD at the beginning of season four as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Ghost Rider. There were some misguided criticisms from fans accusing Marvel of "wasting" Ghost Rider on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, but Robbie proved to be and integral part of the Agents of SHIELD season four plot and Agents of SHIELD's producers did not hold back on letting Ghost Rider show the full fury of the Spirit of Vengeance.

That said, it is clear that Ghost Rider's story is different and larger than the one Agents of SHIELD is telling. Robbie explains it himself when tries to explain to Coulson and Daisy where he's been during most of the second half of the season. As Ghost Rider says, Earth is just one battlefield in a war that stretches across worlds.

When Robbie tells the others about this, he is practically pitching his won Ghost Rider series. Ghost Rider, Spirit of Vengeance and soldier in the never-ending war against darkness, travels from one world to another using the sling ring style portals he can open with his hellfire chain to battle the forces of evil wherever innocent blood has been shed.

One of the largest obstacles standing between the idea of Ghost Rider television series and the reality of a Ghost Rider television series seems to be the cost. As mentioned, Agents of SHIELD's fourth season included plenty of scenes of Ghost Rider in all of his flaming skull glory. However, even the show's producers admit that part of the reason he was written out of the season's second half was the cost of producing those special effects.

Fans may instinctively cry "send the series to Netflix," but there's no evidence that would solve a potential Ghost Rider series' budgeting issues. For all the talking about K'un Lun that Marvel's Iron Fist did in its first series, there wasn't as single shot of the mystical city. The shows in the Defenders wing of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are noteworthy more for doing so much with relatively little, at least in terms of digital effects. In fact, Netflix doesn't have the kind of special effects-heavy television series that a Ghost Rider show would likely be.

That leaves us with the unfortunate situation where a Ghost Rider series, on its face, is a great idea, but the practical considerations may keep it from existing, or at least existing in the form that fans want.

The best hope for Ghost Rider may come from Marvel's Inhumans. As a limited event series that is debuting in IMAX theaters, the budgetary restrictions and expectations for Marvel's Inhumans are unique. If it succeeds, it would make sense that Marvel Television, ABC, and IMAX would be willing to try something similar again, and Ghost Rider seems like a solid fit for the format.

Marvel's Inhumans will come to IMAX theaters on Labo Day. Marvel's Agents of SHIELD will return for its fifth season on ABC in January 2018.

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