“Heated Rivalry” star Connor Storrie is in talks to play the villain opposite Ryan Gosling in Marvel’s “Ghost Rider” movie.

Shawn Levy is directing the film, from a script by “Star Wars: Starfighter” screenwriter Jonathan Tropper. “Ghost Rider” is slated to release on July 28, 2028. Levy and Gosling also produce the project alongside Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito and Stephen Broussard. Executive producers are Richie Palmer and Jessie Henderson.

Landing a Marvel movie would be a big win for Storrie, who shot to pop culture prominence by starring as Russian hockey hunk Ilya Romanov on “Heated Rivalry.” As the story goes, the Texas native was waiting tables at Laurel Grill in Culver City before being offered that game-changing TV role; he’s since parlayed that attention into a Primetime Emmy-nominated turn as guest host of “Saturday Night Live,” and a supporting role opposite Billie Eilish in Sarah Polley’s “The Bell Jar” movie for Focus Features. The much-anticipated second season of “Heated Rivalry” — which centers on the rivals-to-lovers journey between Storrie’s Ilya and Hudson Williams’ Shane Hollander — is now filming and will premiere on HBO Max next spring. Storrie is represented by CAA, Linden Entertainment, Shelter PR, and Yorn Levine.

As for “Ghost Rider,” the project is coming together quickly, with plans to begin shooting in New York next year. Feige made the surprise announcement about the movie during Marvel’s Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con this summer.

“As you know, this is a character I’ve wanted to play for a very long time,” Gosling told the excited crowd.

For years, Gosling had been Marvel fans’ top choice to star in a “Ghost Rider” movie after Nicolas Cage previously played motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze in a 2007 origin story movie and its 2011 sequel. In the comics and those movies, Johnny sells his soul to the devil Mephisto in order to cure his father’s cancer. When the rights reverted to Marvel Studios following those movies, Gabriel Luna played the Robby Reyes version of the character — a younger, Latino man — on the ABC TV show “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

That said, Marvel has yet to confirm which version of Ghost Rider that Gosling will play, so it’s also unclear which villain Storrie would embody. Mephisto was recently introduced into the MCU, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, in the Disney+ series “Ironheart.”

THR broke news of Storrie’s potential involvement in the film. Marvel Studios does not comment on casting.