The multiverse lies at the heart of the MCU's Phase 4, and it could be the key to bringing back Gabriel Luna's Ghost Rider from Agents of SHIELD. When Marvel Televison launched Agents of SHIELD in 2013, they envisioned it as the official MCU tie-in TV series. Unfortunately, relations between Marvel Televison and Marvel Studos became strained as the years passed, particularly after a major restructure at Marvel in 2015.
Oddly enough, it's now easier to incorporate the old Marvel Netflix shows into the main MCU timeline than it is with Agents of SHIELD. This is largely because of the direction Marvel Television's flagship TV series took from season 5 onwards. Season 5 was designed to join in with the MCU's 10-year celebrations, and incorporated elements of Avengers: Infinity War into its main arc. It deliberately avoided the snap, however, and couldn't even deal with that when the show was unexpectedly renewed after seasons 6 and 7 - largely because nobody at Marvel Television had any idea how the studio would resolve the deaths of half the lives in the universe.
Most viewers tend to assume Agents of SHIELD should now be considered to take place in another branch of the MCU's multiverse - an approach that makes sense, because Agents of SHIELD actually embraced the multiverse in season 7, well ahead of the mainstream MCU. Surprisingly, though, this doesn't rule out the possibility one major character from Agents of SHIELD could jump the dimensions with ease. Gabriel Luna's Ghost Rider shouldn't be written out just yet.
The most famous Ghost Rider of all is Johnny Blaze, but in the comics he's just one of thousands to have claimed the mantle of the Spirit of Vengeance since 1,000,000 years ago. In 2014, Marvel Comics introduced a new Ghost Rider - one unlike any seen before in the comics. Inspired in part by One Direction's Zayn Malik, Robbie Reyes was envisioned as a Latino hero who fell under the influence of a Vengeance Demon rather than Zarathos, the traditional Spirit of Vengeance associated with the Ghost Riders. Where the most famous Ghost Riders drove bikes, this "All-New Ghost Rider" was celebrated for driving a classic muscle car – a 1969 Dodge Charger, which he soon dubbed "the Hellcharger."
Robbie Reyes was a welcome step forward in Marvel's attempts to increase diversity, and the themes in the All-New Ghost Rider comics stressed how he differed to his predecessors. He was particularly noted for his relationship with his disabled brother Gabe, who he felt responsible for, and this aspect of his character appealed to the showrunners of Agents of SHIELD. The Marvel Television show had always focused on the theme of family, making Reyes a perfect fit. They cast actor Gabriel Luna for the role, and he immediately became a firm fan-favorite - so much so Marvel Television even tried to launch a Ghost Rider spinoff starring Luna, although production on this project ceased in 2019 among reports of creative differences between Hulu and Marvel Television's creative team. The comics have continued to develop Reyes' All-New Ghost Rider as a character, and he's currently a member of the Avengers - revealed to be the Rider Above All, the ultimate incarnation of the Ghost Rider.
Assuming Agents of SHIELD is indeed a divergent timeline in the MCU, it would actually be remarkably easy for the show's Ghost Rider to make the jump between the dimensions. At one point in season 4, Robbie Reyes became stranded in a Hell Dimension. He allowed the Spirit of Vengeance to take charge, and his powers increased markedly as a result. When Ghost Rider returned, he possessed an ability very similar to that of Doctor Strange; he could spin his chains in a circle, opening portals between the dimensions in the same manner as the Sling Rings used by the Masters of the Mystic Arts.
It's easy to forget that the Sling Rings don't just allow the Masters of the Mystic Arts to travel from Kamar-Taj to Mount Everest, or from Titan to North America. Rather, they can travel anywhere they can envision with their minds, even to other dimensions - after all, as Mordo explained in Doctor Strange, "they allow us to travel throughout the multiverse." This means Robbie Reyes' Ghost Rider can open portals from one branched timeline to another. He can potentially jump straight into the mainstream MCU, simply by simulating a Sling Ring and spinning his chains.
Marvel has spent much of the year clarifying how the MCU's multiverse works ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This appears to introduce two new multiversal groups; some sort of interdimensional Illuminati (including a variant of the X-Men's Professor X, played by Patrick Stewart) and beings like America Chavez who seem to travel through the multiverse unsupervised. The Ghost Rider from Agents of SHIELD could fit into either of these groups. On the one hand, he could potentially be a member of this mysterious Illuminati group, because his knowledge of the Hell Dimensions would surely be invaluable to such a group. Alternatively, Robbie Reyes was never especially keen on authority figures, so he could easily be an independent operator who travels through the multiverse doing good, potentially even opposed by the Illuminati. Trailers have, after all, seemed to tease the Illuminati will imprison America Chavez at some point in Doctor Strange 2.
Either approach would make Gabriel Luna's Ghost Rider a perfect fit for the MCU's Phase 4 multiverse. It would be a smart approach for Marvel to take; he'd add some welcome diversity into the mainstream MCU as a major Latino superhero, and potentially to the Illuminati themselves. What's more, Ghost Rider would serve as a way to bring other characters from Agents of SHIELD into the Phase 4 multiverse as well, such as Chloe Bennet's Quake, who became one of his most notable allies. Given Marvel Studios is beginning to acknowledge other old Marvel Television shows, bringing Charlie Cox back as Daredevil and Vincent D'Onofrio as Kingpin, it would be great to see them incorporate such a significant aspect of Agents of SHIELD's lore.
