While the Academy has a long, proud tradition of pretending blockbuster films don’t exist (unless someone’s playing a British monarch or a CGI dog), Endgame wasn’t just another superhero movie—unless you count a cultural tidal wave as ‘just another.’
Scarlett Johansson Says the Quiet Part Out Loud
It’s not just fans who noticed the snub. Scarlett Johansson, aka Black Widow herself, openly questioned the Academy’s decision in a Vanity Fair interview, delivering what Marvel fans have been yelling on Twitter for years.
“How did this film not get nominated for an Oscar? It was an impossible movie that should not have worked, that really works as a film — and also, it’s one of the most successful films of all time,” Johansson told Vanity Fair, channeling every Marvel stan’s group chat energy with a dash more composure than the rest of us can usually muster. According to Vanity Fair, she pointed out that Endgame was more than a VFX spectacle—it was a legitimate film achievement, both critically and commercially.
The Endgame Achievement Gap
Let’s review. Endgame closed out over a decade of interconnected storytelling, juggling dozens of A-listers, delivering on sky-high fan expectations, and, oh right, becoming the highest-grossing film in history for a while. In Oscar math, that somehow added up to…a lone nomination for Best Visual Effects.
For comparison, Black Panther got a Best Picture nod in 2019. That’s a big win for superhero movies, but it does beg the question: What more could Endgame have possibly done? Bring Thanos back as a tap-dancing ghost?
A Complete Arc, A Complete Snub
Johansson also spoke about the completeness of Black Widow’s arc in Endgame, saying, “I miss my buddies and really would love to be with them forever, but what works about the character is that her story is complete.” Apparently, the Academy prefers their superhero stories incomplete and their blockbusters safely ignored.
The Blockbuster Blind Spot
Endgame didn’t just break records; it broke through the so-called ‘superhero ceiling.’ Critics and fans agreed: the film worked not just as a finale, but as a moment in film history. If the Oscars ever hope to stay relevant in a world where superheroes and genre movies define pop culture, they might want to broaden their scope. Blockbusters can be art, too—just ask Scarlett Johansson, or literally anyone who watched Endgame and didn’t immediately start writing an Oscar thinkpiece.
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