The nominations for the 89th annual Academy Awards were announced this morning and despite a lot of hope and momentum heading into today,Deadpooldidn’t wind up getting anyOscar nods. As an R-rated, violent superhero movie,Deadpoolmay have seemed like it had no chance, but there was actually a real chance thatRyan Reynolds' passion project could have scored some Oscar love this year. Even though it didn’t get nominated,Ryan Reynoldshad a very classy reaction to the news.
When it started to seem likeDeadpoolactually had a shot at scoring an Oscar nomination or two,Ryan Reynoldsstarted campaigning a bit for the movie. He even released a “for your consideration” video done in trueDeadpoolfashion and promised a reaction video in character if the movie did wind up getting some love from the Academy. Today,Ryan Reynoldstook toTwitterto congratulate the Academy Award nominees this year and to address the feelings from theDeadpoolteam. Here is what he had to say.
“Regularly scheduled tickle-fight at Camp #Deadpoolis still on. Congrats to all the nominees for these brilliant films. #Oscars2017”
As popular as superhero movies have been over the last decade or so, theAcademy Awardshave largely ignored them in terms of major categories. The biggest, shining example of this wasThe Dark Knightnot scoring a Best Picture nomination, even after the Academy expanded the category to ten movies. It is hard to imagine something likeDeadpoolgetting a Best Picture nomination whenThe Dark Knightdidn’t, but there was actually a lot of talk about that being a possibility. The movie scored a couple ofGolden Globe nominations, including a Best Picture (musical or comedy), but it was the Writers Guild of America nominating the movie in the Best Adapted Screenplay category that had people talking. With all of the other awards season love, it seemed probable thatDeadpoolcould have been nominated in a major category this year. At least it didn’t get nominated for aRazzielikeBatman V Superman.
The Academy Awards can still nominate as many as ten movies for Best Picture every year and this year, they only nominated nine. So, there was still a possibility something likeDeadpoolcould have snuck in there had things went a little differently. Even if it had been nominated, there would have been virtually no chance that the movie would have won. However, hadDeadpoolbeen nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, it would seem more likely thatRhett ReeseandPaul Wernick, who were touted as “the real heroes here” in the opening credits of the movie, could have won. Still, it would have been an outside shot. There was also a possibility thatRyan Reynoldscould have snuck into the Best Actor category. Given the fact thatRobert Downey Jr.was able to get nominated forTropic Thunder, that also doesn’t seem as farfetched as it may seem.Ryan Reynoldswas also nominated in that category at the Golden Globes, but the Best Actor category was very hotly contested this year.
Deadpool, even without any Oscar nominations, will go down as a massive success. The movie had $783 million worldwide on just a $58 million budget and proved that R-rated superhero movies can be very successful. The fact that it got any awards season love and was even in the Oscar conversation at all is astounding. That is likely whyRyan Reynoldshad such a classy response and surely,Deadpoolhas exceeded any of his wildest expectations. The 89th annual Academy Awards will take place on February 26 at 7 p.m. EST on ABC.
