Agents of SHIELD has been renewed for season four.

What a bizarre choice. They could have gone in so many more SHIELD-y directions.

Meet 'Agents of SHIELD's' Ghost Rider: Gabriel Luna Talks Playing First Live-Action Robbie Reyes

Agents of SHIELD is going where no other live-action comic book property has gone before.

The ABC Marvel series is bringing Ghost Rider to life in season four, but instead of introducing the more well-known Johnny Blaze, the show will welcome the lesser-known version, Robbie Reyes (Gabriel Luna). While Johnny Blaze has been around in the comics world since 1972, Robbie Reyes only debuted in March 2014.

"Because there is so little material on him right now, a lot of the show is going to be expanding the Ghost Rider canon," Luna tells The Hollywood Reporter. "That's really cool. It's all me. It's all on me."

In fact, Luna didn't even know that Robbie existed when he first landed the major season four role.

"I knew about Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch, those were really my generation of the Ghost Rider," Luna says. "I in fact did not know that the Ghost Rider spirit of vengeance was now inhabiting Robbie Reyes now. When [Marvel TV head] Jeph [Loeb] and [Agents of SHIELD executive producers] Jed [Whedon] and Mo [Tancharoen] finally cracked the lid on what I'd be playing, I was shocked because when they called me they were very secretive as to what it was. When I finally found out what it was, I did my research and I looked into it, and that's when I discovered that there was this new incarnation of Ghost Rider."

According to Luna, as soon as he found out which version of Ghost Rider he'd be portraying, he went out and bought the entire Robbie Reyes run from his local Hollywood comic book store.

"I went to the desk and gave the guy the books and asked him if that was the entire run. And he was like, 'Yeah man. It was a couple years ago, they did 12 issues. You should read it, it's really great,'" Luna says. "I had just found out I got the job from Jeph a day before. It was great because the owner of the shop, he was calling from the aisles, 'Did you hear that stuff that's coming out of San Diego? There's like a chain that's got an Agents of SHIELD wrap on it with a flaming chain and everyone is speculating that it's going to be Ghost Rider.'"

He continues, "He has this encyclopedic knowledge of everything that's going down in the books and graphic novels and comics world. I just loved the excitement that this guy had. That was the very first moment that I realized just how big this role was going to be and the importance that this role had. But even though he had this excitement, I had to bite my tongue and I couldn't tell him that here I am buying my research. But this guy really took care of me. I can't wait to go back and tell him. I'm going to make some time to do that."

After he read up on all of Robbie's adventures in the comic books, Luna began to feel a "kinship" to the character.

"His little brother's name is Gabe. I have a little brother who I care for," Luna says. "And I did this show Matador where I also had a little brother, and the show came from Robert Rodriguez, who has the same name as Robbie and the same initials as Robbie. And when he came to direct our pilot and finale of Matador, he drove around in a black Dodge Charger. There are all these weird synchronicities that you can't ignore. I don't find it daunting as of now because I truly believe this was all meant to work out. I'm excited to bring him to life for the first time."

Luna's "grateful" that the SHIELD producers chose Robbie over Johnny because of the juicy backstory and family history that the character has in the comics, but as of now, he hasn't shot any scenes showcasing Robbie's family.

"It's so early right now, and there's very little I know right now," Luna says. "We have the first episode in the can. What I'm really excited about is that the Robbie I had in my mind, he's there. It's not just his name or his body. His personality is all there. And it's still the Ghost Rider. The Ghost Rider is a completely separate thing from Robbie. It's something that always inhabits his body and something that he always has to fight. It's an evil thing. That's what they have maintained in the writing. It's going to be a really solid interpretation of Ghost Rider. But as for his family, we're going to have to wait and see if they show up."

That separation between Robbie and the Ghost Rider spirit is what Luna is most looking forward to portraying.

"A lot of what happens in the books is that Robbie has this internal conflict with the spirit of vengeance," Luna says. "It's a really strong story. I'm excited to get to show how he's able to exist with this spirit of vengeance and not only harness it but own it. That's always been central to the Ghost Rider story. Sometimes the Rider totally takes over and that's a terrifying process. It's always this push and pull between the two characters."

While the Ghost Rider spirit and Robbie are two separate entities, Luna reveals that he's playing both characters.

"The flaming head? Yeah, that's me," Luna says. "I am playing that. We have this great VFX for it, and I saw the mockup the other day and I thought it was completely finished. I was like, 'Just throw that up on my TV.' It's a combination of CG and also some marking on my face so I can do some expressions."

But as for how Robbie will be introduced on the show and how he comes into contact with SHIELD, Luna remained tight-lipped.

"That's pretty much all I can say at this point, is that I'm on the show," Luna says with a laugh. "But September 20th is right around the corner and you'll find out soon enough."

Agents of SHIELD returns for season four on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at its new time, 10 p.m., on ABC.

'Agents of SHIELD' Team Talks "Supernatural" Season Premiere Twist, Possible 'Doctor Strange' Link

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Tuesday's season premiere of Agents of SHIELD.]

Agents of SHIELD doubled down on the supernatural in the season four premiere.

While viewers were expecting a touch of the mystical with the addition of Robbie Reyes aka Ghost Rider (Gabriel Luna), a twist in the episode revealed that a mysterious box has the ability to make people go crazy and homicidal after witnessing a ghost-like entity. And that box has somehow infected Agent May (Ming-Na Wen).

So what's in the box?

"Weed," Wen joked an early screening of the episode held Monday. "Really good weed."

Executive producer Jed Whedon laughed, but then elaborated. "That's what in the box, something strange," he said. "We are introducing, with the addition of young Mr. Ghost Rider, we are introducing a different, supernatural element to the MCU in which happens to coincide with the release of Doctor Strange. Coincidence? So that's what's in the box. We can't tell you, but it's something along those lines."

Wen echoed the "We can't answer that question" line when asked how worried fans should be about May. "It's obvious that she is affected by it," the actress teased.

As for the other supernatural element of season four, Ghost Rider, Whedon revealed that they did take some liberties when it came to adapting the popular Marvel antihero for the show.

"We've obviously made a few changes you can see around the surface. We've aged both him and [his brother] Gabe up," Whedon said. "But we're pretty faithful to his backstory. We also don't want people who have read the comics to know what's coming next. We put our own spin on it. And we're super happy with everything we've been seeing from Gabriel in his portrayal in the role."

After coming in contact with Ghost Rider and witnessing his fiery abilities firsthand, a rogue and on-the-run Daisy (Chloe Bennet) tried to get him to kill her, believing that she "deserves to die" for everything that happened in season three. The Ghost Rider spirit clearly didn't agree with her, since he left her alive at the end of the episode.

"She's not doing well," Bennet said. "She's had a rough couple of years. She's taking some time and I think it's kind of her way of protecting the people that she cares about. Everyone she's gotten close to, something bad has happened to them. It's her weird, selfish way of protecting them, but we'll see."

Since SHIELD now airs one hour later, at 10 p.m., the showrunners said they are able to take the show in a more "mature" direction, as was already proven in the sexy opening shot of the season four premiere.

"There was a shot of Quake's legs … " Whedon said with a laugh. "[ABC] haven't really ever given us a note on violence. We've cut people into pieces and hacked them up and shot people point blank in the head. Never got any notes on that. So pushing the envelope for us will be in the sexual nature, as they say."

Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb agreed, adding, "I think what it does is give us the chance to tell different stories. The idea is some of the material might be more mature, there may be more grit, what we're doing might be darker. It certainly made a lot more sense when we wanted to introduce a character like Ghost Rider into this world. But it wasn't like it was completely unexpected. In many ways, it felt very organic to bring the team in in order to encounter this character."

As for former BFFs turned lovers, Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) have taken their relationship to the next level this season. But could Fitz keeping a secret as big as Dr. Radcliffe's (John Hannah) Life Model Decoy invention Aida (Mallory Jansen) pose a threat to their new relationship?

"It's weird. They're trying to maintain a healthy relationship while being secret undercover spies that have secret assignments," Caestecker said with a laugh. "I don't know, it's with the best intentions, keeping stuff from her, I suppose. It's going to get interesting. Lying is a strong word. I’m just keeping stuff from [her], not lying."

Agents of SHIELD airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

I still have to watch the last half of last season. I think it's because Daisy annoys me so much.

I thought the finale was pretty anti-climactic to be honest.

But yeah, ABC moved the show (and Once Upon a Time) to Friday nights for next fall, claiming "it's what our Sci-Fi and Fantasy audience wants!"

NBC is also moving Blindspot to Friday nights. I suspect all three shows will be done after next season.

Apparently, this season is got pretty good reviews, especially compared to the CW super shows.

I haven't really paid much attention to reviews, but I've kind of been grinding through Agents without a whole lot of enjoyment. They've got some great people (Gregg and Ming-Na particularly), although I still don't care for Chloe Bennet. It just feels like they're trying too hard most of the time without really knowing where they're going. The Matrix ripoff for most of the season felt tired to me. The Ghost Rider was OK, although I think it suffered from a weak villain.

As for the CW shows, I think they suffer from a couple of things: first, I think they're too aware of their "niche" so they're too busy trying to appeal to what they think their audience wants (pretty people and lots of melodrama). It's hard to argue since it's worked pretty well for them, after all Supernatural is going on what, 13 season now?

The other problem is the writing and budget for the shows. They've got really good and likable casts, for the most part, but I think they'd be served well by having shorter seasons. They could tighten up on the writing and plotting, and could really concentrate the SFX/CGI for when it really serves the story better. Frankly I'm surprised there's not more "bottle" episodes on those shows.