Rebel Wilson is best known for her role in the Pitch Perfect series of musical comedies, as well as the Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit. She also stars in the Netflix comedy Senior Year, about a high school senior who wakes up after a 17-year coma. As Wilson continues to experiment in her career with a role in the upcoming British drama The Almond and the Seahorse, fans may be wondering if she will join so many other beloved actors in Marvel Studios' sprawling cinematic universe project as a classic comic book character. However, the Australian actor has already played a quirky role in an underrated Marvel movie.
In 2007's Ghost Rider, directed by Mark Steven Johnson, Rebel Wilson plays a minor character credited simply as "Girl in Alley." However, she makes more of an impact on the movie's story than this generic title suggests. Wilson is present for one of the comic book anti-hero's first acts of devilish justice, and her description of the skeletal figure to a reporter is a reminder of just how weird superheroes can be. Dressed in black and wearing various necklaces and bracelets, Wilson's character is also the image of a quintessential Goth, which only makes the two-scene-wonder more memorable.
The first time Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) transforms into the skeletal, constantly on fire Ghost Rider, he finds a woman calling for help while being mugged at knifepoint for her bag. Ghost Rider growls at the strangers and prompts the woman to get away. Even though Wilson plays this character with an American accent, her native Australian does come out when she replies, "Thanks," before running away. Ghost Rider then apparently kills the thug with his legendary "Penance Stare," which forces him to experience all the pain he has ever inflicted on others at once.
Johnny encounters the woman again the following day, being interviewed by Eva Mendes' reporter Roxanne. Roxanne listens patiently to Wilson's description of the "good Samaritan" but becomes skeptical and frustrated when she nonchalantly reveals that "his face was a skull, and it was on fire." The scene is an early example of Wilson's career-defining comedy acting as she mimes the flames to Roxanne before turning to mime at the television audience as if providing useful testimony. She goes on the say that "it was an edge look on him, but he totally pulled it off," a hilariously deadpan appraisal of the nightmarishly supernatural figure she witnessed the night before.
In addition to her dialogue, Wilson's wardrobe helps make the character and reveals more about her personality. In the interview scene, she wears a tank top with the text, "I leave bite marks." In the mugging scene, she wears a T-shirt with a phrase that begins, "Girls...," and it would be a fun discovery in niche pop culture trivia to find out what the rest of the T-shirt said. The character also wears rings and studded bracelets, making her right at home in the edgy, rock and roll world of Ghost Rider.
Just as Kevin Feige felt there was no need to recast classic Spider-Man villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home, some fans may feel that Nicolas Cage should return to play Johnny Blaze in the MCU. The multiverse could make that happen by bringing this Ghost Rider movie into the current Marvel Studios universe. Even if this were to happen, it's unlikely that Girl in Alley would return for an encore appearance. However, this shouldn't stop Rebel Wilson from returning to play a new character that could be just as memorable.
