Connor Storrie in Talks to Play Ryan Gosling's 'Ghost Rider' Villain

The 'Heated Rivalry' breakout would face Gosling in Shawn Levy's Marvel film, which is due July 28, 2028.

Before "Heated Rivalry" made him famous, Connor Storrie was waiting tables at Laurel Grill in Culver City, Variety reported. Now he's negotiating to be the bad guy across from Ryan Gosling in Marvel's "Ghost Rider."

The Hollywood Reporter broke the casting news Tuesday. Deadline said sources had confirmed it, and Variety and TheWrap soon followed. Nobody's calling it a done deal. Every outlet says talks, Marvel's reps declined to comment to Deadline, and Variety said the studio doesn't comment on casting.

Which villain he'd play is still open. Deadline would only say he's reportedly the film's antagonist, and Variety pointed out that Marvel hasn't said which version of Ghost Rider Gosling is playing. THR assumes it's Johnny Blaze, the stunt rider who makes a deal with the devil, and noted that Blaze never had a signature foe in the comics, just a crowd of demons.

It's been a very fast climb. "Heated Rivalry," the Crave and HBO Max romance about rival hockey players, debuted in November 2025. TheWrap reported that Season 1 drew an average of 10.6 million viewers. Storrie, who plays Russian star Ilya Rozanov opposite Hudson Williams, turned that into a "Saturday Night Live" hosting gig that got him an Emmy nomination.

He's also shot a role opposite Billie Eilish in Sarah Polley's "The Bell Jar," according to Variety and THR. Still, THR called "Ghost Rider" his first big project since the show made him famous.

The show hasn't slowed down either. Regal is distributing all six Season 1 episodes to more than 650 theaters from Nov. 6 to Nov. 30, and Variety said Season 2 is filming now for a spring premiere on HBO Max.

"Ghost Rider" came together just as fast. Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige announced it in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con in July and gave it a July 28, 2028, release date. "This is a character I've wanted to play for a very long time," Gosling told the crowd there, Variety reported.

Fans had pictured him in the role for years, Variety said, ever since Nicolas Cage played Johnny Blaze in 2007 and again in a sequel. The first of those films co-starred Eva Mendes, who's married to Gosling, TheWrap noted. That makes his new film a kind of family rematch.

Shawn Levy, who directed "Deadpool & Wolverine," is reuniting with Gosling and writer Jonathan Tropper after "Star Wars: Starfighter," which Disney releases in May 2027, TheWrap reported. The cameras are headed east. Citing sources, THR reported that the shoot is planned for New York next year, on film, with "Dune: Part Three" cinematographer Linus Sandgren lighting it.

If the talks close, Storrie's next stretch looks like this: Ilya back on HBO Max in the spring, a Marvel set in New York, then a summer 2028 opening opposite Gosling. Not bad for a former Culver City waiter.

Source: Deadline, retrieved October 28, 2026. Other sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, TheWrap.