Avengers: Endgame’s Oscar Campaign Doesn’t Include Robert Downey Jr.

A couple of weeks ago, Disney launched the official awards push for Avengers: Endgame when the movie was listed on the studio’s ‘For Your Consideration’ page on their website alongside Toy Story 4, Aladdin, The Lion King and Frozen 2. Now, the list of awards that the culmination of the Infinity Saga has been competing for has been revealed, and in what will be a blow to many fans, there’s no place for Robert Downey Jr.’s final farewell as Tony Stark.

Unsurprisingly, Endgame is being heavily pushed in the technical categories with the movie being put up for consideration for Best Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects, where it stands a good chance of picking up a couple of wins. However, in terms of what you would call the ‘big’ awards, the twenty-second entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is only hoping to compete for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Original Score.

It seems unlikely that Endgame will be in the conversation when it comes to the major categories, but it will come as a disappointment to many that Downey Jr.’s performance wasn’t even on the shortlist, including directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who felt that Iron Man’s last appearance in the MCU was awards-worthy.

“I don’t know if I have ever seen, in movie history, a global audience react to a performance the way they did to Robert Downey Jr. in that movie. There were people bawling in movie theaters, hyperventilating. I mean, that is a profound performance, when you can touch audiences all over the world to that degree. We’ve never seen anything like that, and if that doesn’t deserve an Oscar, I don’t know what does.”

Outside of Heath Ledger’s unforgettable performance in The Dark Knight, the acting in comic book blockbusters isn’t generally recognized by the Academy, so it doesn’t really come as much surprise that RDJ doesn’t feature as part of Avengers: Endgame‘s Oscar push. And while the movie is a huge long-shot to pick up Best Picture, it still stands a much better chance than any of the Mouse House’s other output from the last year.