Marvel Studios Planning Oscar Campaign for Hugh Jackman’s Performance in Deadpool & Wolverine

Deadpool & Wolverine is officially shooting and clawing its way toward an Oscar, led by a new campaign to secure an Academy Award nomination for star Hugh Jackman. Deadpool & Wolverine will be aiming at the usual Oscar categories where Marvel Cinematic Universe movies compete (technical categories like production design, sound, editing, costuming, and visual effects), but going for a major acting category is certainly buzzworthy. There are many tricks to the trade of launching an Academy Award campaign (and going home with the Oscar), but Disney is one of the smartest at doing it. 

Variety exclusively reports that Disney is looking to get Hugh Jackman in the Best Supporting Actor race at the Oscars – and across other awards shows, including the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, and Critics Choice Awards. The studio is reportedly being much more targeted with its campaign to get Ryan Reynolds in ‘Best Actor’ considerations, looking more at the Golden Globes and its “Best Actor (Comedy or Musical)” category. Based on early indications, Deadpool & Wolverine will indeed be making a hard push to get into the various major ‘comedy or musical’ categories at the Globes. 

Hugh Jackman has had four Golden Globe nominations (one win!) and one Oscar nomination throughout his career. His biggest awards season push came with Tom Hooper’s 2013 adaptation of Les Misérables (the Oscar nom and Globe win); however, Jackman has several performances that many fans felt got snubbed, including his dark role in Dune director Denis Villeneuve’s breakout thriller Prisoners, and James Mangold’s somber X-Men movie epilogue, Logan. 

The latter film was one that many comic book movie fans felt should’ve been given much more awards prestige – beyond the Oscar nomination it got for “Best Adapted Screenplay” as the Oscars. In Deadpool & Wolverine Jackman plays a role not too far off from this time a version of Wolverine who is broken and haunted by his failure to save the X-Men until he is recruited by Deadpool to embark on a heroic mission. While seemingly irreverent and funny on the surface, Deadpool & Wolveirne‘s meta-layered narrative delved into Jackman’s quarter-century run in X-Men movies – what it’s cost him, what kind of icon it’s made him, and what he means to an entire generation of fans. It’s both pulp entertainment and the kind of examination of art, and artist, that the Oscars seem to love. 

Marvel Studios nearly got its first major acting Oscar thanks to Angela Bassett’s Best Supporting Actress nom for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. If Jackman actually brings the Oscar home, he will truly be THE X-Man. 

Deadpool & Wolverine has a digital release date (including Prime Video and Apple TV+) of October 1st. It will hit 4K Blu-ray and DVD on October 22nd.