Superhero movies make studio executives happy with all the money they generate. However, they’re rarely seen as an art form that can yield Oscar attention. Whether it’s from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the newly re-invented DC Studios, convincing Academy and industry voters to take films featuring iconic characters like Batman, Superman or Iron Man as seriously as the latest World War II epic can be challenging. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been worthy films and performances throughout cinema’s history that should have been well-documented on the various “snubs and surprises” lists.
In celebration of the history-making weekend of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Variety ranks the 15 most significant Oscar snubs for superhero movies.
Marvel Studios has achieved significant success, landing 27 Oscar nominations across its global box-office hits, beginning with Jon Favreau’s inaugural entry “Iron Man” (2008). Of these noms, Marvel has taken home four statuettes: costume design (Ruth E. Carter), production design (Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart) and original score (Ludwig Göransson) for “Black Panther” (2018), and costume design (Carter) for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022). Carter is the only Black woman to win multiple Oscars in any category. Directed by Ryan Coogler, “Black Panther” was the first superhero movie to be nominated for best picture. This was followed by Todd Phillips’s “Joker” (2019) in the subsequent awards season.
Before the current iteration of DC Studios, led by James Gunn and Peter Safran, the DC Extended Universe existed, which was kicked off with Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, “Man of Steel” (2013). Warner Bros. has released multiple adaptations from DC Comics, starting with Richard Donner’s classic “Superman” (1978) starring Christopher Reeve. Fairing better than its MCU rival, collectively, films based on DC Comics have generated 30 Oscar nominations, winning six: art direction (Anton Furst and Peter Young) for “Batman” (1989), supporting actor (Heath Ledger) and sound effects editing for “The Dark Knight” (2008), makeup and hairstyling for “Suicide Squad” (2016), and actor (Joaquin Phoenix) and original score (Hildur Guðnadóttir) for “Joker” (2019).
Shawn Levy’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” has received exceptionally high general audience reception, but critics’ reviews, currently at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, are the lowest of its three predecessors. Regarding the Oscar race, I would expect the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman starring vehicle to be in the discussion for some artisan races, particularly for visual effects and sound. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Golden Globes liked it for their comedy races, especially since they recognized the inaugural entry with noms for best picture and actor (Reynolds).
Read the list of Variety’s 15 top Oscar snubs throughout history below.
Honorable mentions: Makeup, “Darkman” (1990); Visual Effects, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022); Visual Effects, “The Rocketeer” (1991); Original Score, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (2023); Visual Effects, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017); Visual Effects, “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017).