Jeph Loeb Explains Why Agents of SHIELD Chose Robbie Reyes As Ghost Rider

After weeks of speculation, Marvel Television officially announced at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2016 that Marvel’s spirit of vengeance would be riding into Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4…or driving, as the case may be. Robbie Reyes, the most recent Marvel character to be called Ghost Rider, will be a big part of the next season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and he’s bringing his classic muscle car with him. Executive Producer Jeph Loeb expressed his excitement about the big reveal to ComicBook.com’s Lucas Siegel at Comic-Con.

“It’s incredibly exciting, and I know a lot of people were speculating on it,” Loeb says. “Not only is it exciting to be able to tell people that it’s Robbie Reyes, but that we have this unbelievably cool car, that 1969 black Charger that’s still on the floor of the convention, and then on top of that that we’ve just announced that Gabriel Luna, who is an extremely talented young actor who people may know from Matador on El Rey. It’s going to be a hell of a season.”

Ghost Rider makes a certain amount of sense as a new edition to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Season 4. The show is being pushed back from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. on ABC’s Tuesday schedule, which should allow it to adopt a little more of the dark, gritty tone of Marvel’s Netflix series, which is where most fans expected to see Ghost Rider appear. Most fans also expected for Ghost Rider to be Johnny Blaze, the original Ghost Rider, or possibly Daniel Ketch, Johnny’s temporary replacement, both of whom rode motorcycles. Loeb explained why S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to go with Robbie instead, and it isn’t just for the cool car.

“We picked Robbie, actually, because our show, at the end of day, is always about family,” Loeb explains, “and the fact that Robbie’s relationship with Gabe [Robbie’s developmentally disabled brother] is so much a part of his character, and the world of east LA, which is not a place that we’ve ever gone to in the Marvel universe, was just a really exciting way.”

According to Loeb, creator Felipe Smith is also pretty excited that Robbie was chosen to be the show’s Ghost Rider.

“We actually got Felipe Smith, who created this particular [Ghost Rider], happened to be walking by when we were signing, so he came up, and he got to see the car, and to show off, and he got to meet everybody in the cast,” Loeb says. “It was really great.”

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns to ABC on Sept. 20, 2016.