Avi Arad Was "Heartbroken" With 'Black Panther's Oscar Loss

Avi Arad is an important name in Marvel history. The businessman and producer has served as the chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment and CEO and founder of Marvel Studios. He's had his named attached to Marvel content all the way back to the Iron Man and Fantastic Four cartoons in the mid-90s, starting his role as feature producer with Blade and X-Men. He continues to wok with Sony Productions, most recently attached as a producer on Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Despite not working on many Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Arad spoke to Deadline about Black Panther being the first ever superhero film to be nominated for Best Picture, and was admittedly disappointed by the loss.

"I was heartbroken that Black Panther didn't get the Academy," he shared. "It could have, but you know, [the voters] they always looked at superheroes like it was a 'Yabba dabba doo' kind of a thing versus something that mattered or something that was going to last."

Arad shared more in the article, including that he wants to make an animated Spider-Man movie with Sam Raimi, the director who helmed the Toby Maguire trilogy. He also shared that X-Men toys led to the movies. The 70-year-old producer currently has his name attached to plenty more projects, including Black Cat, Venom 2, Morbid, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the highly-anticipated sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

While Black Panther's Best Picture loss at the Oscars left many comic fans disappointed, the film still managed to score three awards at the ceremony, which were Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson), Best Costume Design (Ruth E. Carter), and Best Production Design (Hannah Beachler, Jay Hart). The film also won the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and Grammy Awards for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Ludwig Göransson) and Best Rap Performance for "Kings Dead" (Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Future and James Blake). It also has the most NAACP Image Award nominations this year, coming out with 16 nods.

Black Panther is currently streaming on Netflix. Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe films include Avengers: Endgame on April 26th, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th. Captain Marvel is currently playing in theaters everywhere.

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