Marvel's Ghost Rider movies didn't have the warmest of receptions. Not even Nicolas Cage is a fan, and he starred in them!

Cage played the flaming vigilante Johnny Blaze in a 2007 film and a 2011 sequel — neither of which gave the actor the creative freedom he'd hoped for, it seems.

During a chat with JoBlo, Nicolas Cage claimed that his and writer David S Goyer's vision for a grittier, R-rated story was blocked by producers.

"Ghost Rider was a movie that always should've been an R-rated movie," Cage explained. "David Goyer had a brilliant script which I wanted to do with David, and for whatever reason they just didn't let us make the movie."

Given the success of R-rated Deadpool, Cage remains hopeful that Ghost Rider will eventually get the gruesome big-screen adaptation it deserves — although the actor thinks his time in the role has passed.

"That movie is a still a movie that should be made, not with me obviously, but it should be an R-rated movie," he argued.

"Heck, Deadpool was R-rated and that did great. Ghost Rider was designed to be a scary superhero with an R-rating and edge, and they just didn't have it worked out back then."

Since the release of Cage's Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the rights to the character have reverted to Marvel Studios. This has resulted in the Robbie Reyes version of the character recently turning up in Agents of SHIELD, as played by Gabriel Luna.

There's even been talk of SHIELD's version of Ghost Rider getting his own gritty spin-off at some point.