Robbie Reyes met an unexpected fate in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 4×08, and the cast and crew weigh in on what’s next for Ghost Rider.
Robbie’s decision to take out Eli Morrow in an act of self-sacrifice has left fans (and characters) wondering if Ghost Rider still has a future on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, showrunners Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon were classically noncommittal — but their answer definitely gives fans something to think about.
“We get the sense that some of these otherworldly elements might be coming from this other place, wherever that may be,” Whedon says, citing Doctor Strange’s Dark Dimension.
“We do get the sense that things can come from there, things live there. [Robbie has] been dragged to that place, wherever that is. What happens to him there or where that goes is a ‘wait and see.'”
Tancharoen adds that, though Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will move into a new “pod” of story when the show returns in January, “That doesn’t mean that [Robbie] is gone.”
“Or that he will not be involved at some point,” Whedon says. “But it will definitely have a different feel.”
As for Gabriel Luna, the actor who brought Robbie and Ghost Rider to blazing life is optimistic about his character’s future.
“I’m not too worried about it being finite at this point,” he tells EW.
After all, he and Robbie still have a few loose ends to tie up. “My car is still parked on the cargo bay on the Zephyr, so I have to come back for that,” Luna says. “I’m not going to leave her in the hands of these jokers.”
And though his character was left on an emphatic question mark, Luna appreciates the culmination of Robbie’s story.
“He makes a really great heroic choice, and he makes it while in a form that usually has all the power,” he says. “So that’s really, really cool. I’m really excited to see how that plays out. It’s a first for us, in terms of story, actually seeing a decision being made while Robbie isn’t Robbie. That is pretty special.”
Luna is also looking forward to seeing the impact of Robbie’s apparent disappearance on Daisy Johnson.
“She seems to lose a lot of people,” he observes. “Even though we just met, we built this understanding between each other because of similarities in our lives, and we leave her in a moment of questioning and of hoping that this isn’t the end for Robbie.”
And the actor, like Daisy, and like all good constituents of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., has faith in a certain former Director.
“Agent Phil Coulson comes in and drops knowledge like a clumsy librarian, as he tends to do, and lifts her spirits and says to her, ‘I don’t think this is the last we’ll see of him,'” Luna says. “So that’s a good sign for everyone who loves the Ghost Rider.”
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns on Jan. 10, 2017.