Marvel Reportedly 'Shocked' Over Ghost Rider Cancellation

Kevin Feige, the main architect behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was recently promoted to oversee everything Marvel-related for parent company Disney not just his traditional territory of Marvel Studios. And that promotion means that Feige is wresting full control of the television side of Marvel from the company's CEO Ike Perlmutter and Head of Television Jeph Loeb. Loeb's departure from the company has just recently been announced, as new reports indicate that Marvel hasn't been pleased over recent developments on the company's television side.

Specifically, Marvel Television executives were reportedly "shocked and embarrassed" that Hulu decided to cancel the planned live-action Ghost Rider series before a single episode had aired, according to a report from Variety. The streaming platform pulled the plug on Ghost Rider in September 2019, just a few months after it was announced in May 2019 that the project was in development.

Ghost Rider was meant to be an off-shoot of the long-running ABC show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., arguably the most successful live-action Marvel TV series to date, but wouldn't actually have any ties to that series' storyline. The only connection it would have to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was through Gabriel Luna, who was set to star on Ghost Rider as the namesake flaming-skull-headed hero, which the actor had previously portrayed during a number of guest appearances on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

According to Deadline, Hulu and the creative team behind Ghost Rider hit, quote, "a creative impasse which could not be resolved." Since coming to an agreement was apparently impossible and the differences between the streamer and the show's team were evidently irreconcilable, Hulu executives decided not to move forward with the series.

That happened in late September 2019, and a month later, it's still unclear what exactly the creative roadblock entailed. The intention was to totally revamp Ghost Rider for the Marvel-Hulu series, and have him stand as a new version of the character, separate from the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. narrative. That's a confusing setup at best, and it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that Hulu executives grew unhappy with how the Ghost Rider team planned to portray the antihero. Keep watching the video to see more of how Marvel reportedly 'shocked' over Ghost Rider cancellation.

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