Gabriel Luna is speaking out about the canceled Ghost Rider Hulu series and the underrepresentation of leading Latinx actors in Hollywood.The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actor retweeted a link to an article in which The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Anthony Mackie called out Marvel Studios for not doing enough to promote diversity on its own productions. "To think we were right on the launchpad with Ghost Rider and still couldn't get it made," Luna wrote. "An opportunity lost to have a Mexican-American lead in a world where films with Latino leads make up less than 3%."
Luna's assessment of the state of Latinx representation in Hollywood isn't unprecedented. According to a 2019 USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report, Latinx actors were leads in only 3% of the top 100 grossing films during the period of 2007-2018. The report also notes that Latinx characters made up just 4.5% of speaking roles, despite Latinx people making up more than 18% of the population according to data from the U.S. census. The report also found underrepresentation of Latinx people working behind the camera.
Before the series was canceled in September, Luna was set to reprise the role of Robbie Reyes from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The show and character, however, would have existed in a continuity separate from its previous incarnation, which debuted in 2016. "I was gearing up for Ghost Rider for some time, a few years now, just on hold, waiting," Luna said after the cancelation. "So I guess there's not much hope holding out. I think it's mainly, I know maybe there's still couple of pages that are ... the binding of the book is not really closed. But for me, personally, I think that, you leave it where it was."
Reports indicate Ghost Rider is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, Luna will not be portraying this version of the character. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is said to be developing the MCU project, which may confirm a report indicating he had a hand in the cancelation of the series. While it is still unknown if the new Spirit of Vengeance project will be a television series or a feature film, it appears it will not feature Robbie Reyes.