Exclusive: Stephanie Beatriz To Play Marvel’s Ghost Rider
This article is more than 2 years old
Ghost Rider has been made into movies at other studios. None of them really worked. Now that Marvel has the rights back, they want to re-introduce the character as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A new version of Ghost Rider is in development at Marvel Studios, under the oversight of Marvel head Kevin Feige. As for who they want to play Ghost Rider, I’ve heard from one of my sources that they want Stephanie Beatriz.
That’s right, Marvel wants to make Ghost Rider a woman.
This information about Stephanie Beatriz being in contention comes from one of the same sources that helped me break the news that Kevin Feige is obstructing Disney from releasing Black Widow on streaming. That scoop has now been confirmed, which lends some credence to this intel. That said, Beatriz is only in consideration for the part right now and it’s still early days on Marvel’s new Ghost Rider movie project.
39-year-old Stephanie Beatriz, best known for her work on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, was also one of the contenders to play She-Hulk. That part eventually went to Tatiana Maslany, but Marvel has kept Beatriz on their radar. She was also in the mix to be the new Batwoman for DC, which indicates there’s some interest out there in Hollywood in getting her in a superhero costume. Ghost Rider, though, seems like a better fit for Beatriz than any of those.
Ghost Rider has actually been female in the comics before, most notably as the character Alejandra Jones. She’s the name fans are pushing for, though it’s unclear who might play her.
If you picture Stephanie Beatriz with short hair, there actually is some resemblance between her and the comic book drawings of Alejandra Jones…
Alejandra Jones 
Stephanie Beatriz
Marvel is making a major push for more diversity in their next generation of superhero movies. They’re already making Thor a woman by bringing back Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster and giving her the God of Thunder’s powers in Thor Love And Thunder. And now word is they’re going to do the same with Ghost Rider by casting Stephanie Beatriz.
That doesn’t mean that the only Ghost Rider in the MCU will be female. We’re likely going to end up with more than one rider. According to this source Marvel will still also have a male version of Ghost Rider, with Johnny Blaze, but they’re especially keen to make a female version happen.
In parallel to Stephanie Beatriz’s version there are also still plenty of rumors that Marvel wants Keanu Reeves to play the Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider in a movie. That may still happen, our source didn’t have any information on where that project stands.
The character, however, remains insanely popular even after all the previously failed attempts to make him work. The 2007 Nicholas Cage version of Ghost Rider was technically profitable. It cost $50 million to make and earned nearly $230 million worldwide. $230 million is a paltry sum by most modest superhero standards, though, one Marvel could easily improve on by simply attaching the character to their existing Avengers properties.
As for Stephanie Beatriz, she recently finished filming the movie In The Heights and she’s set to appear in a series called Alpha-Betas. Outside of that, she has nothing else on her radar, which means she’s leaving her dance card wide open. Marvel just has to commit and fill it.
