Chadwick Boseman was the obvious frontrunner in the Best Actor category at the 2021 Oscars. He was amazing in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the Academy is known for posthumously honoring performances, and it’d have made a great finale to a strange and muted pandemic awards season. But his many fans’ hopes were dashed when Joaquin Phoenix reached into that envelope and perfunctorily announced that Anthony Hopkins had won for The Father.
Worse was that Hopkins wasn’t even available to give a speech, so immediately afterwards, the ceremony wrapped up. It was an abrupt ending to what’s surely set to be the least-watched Oscars since they began being televised. Boseman fans were also annoyed that the goody bags for the night contained an embarrassingly trashy-looking NFT tribute to him, especially given the environmental impact of them.
And as you can see down below, many folks are now comparing the ending of the ceremony to Game of Thrones‘ conclusion:
'The worst TV ending since Game of Thrones!' Oscars is slammed for anti-climax as Chadwick Boseman loses to Anthony Hopkins for Best Actor in the LAST award of the night and $2.5M Nomadlan…
via https://t.co/iDmtTZl3Op https://t.co/J58l7hV8kU— ImageKingUSA (@ImageKingUSA1) April 26, 2021
it's dawning on me that this #Oscars basically follows the same outline of Game of Thrones
unexpectedly good start
gets pretty intriguing the longer it goes
oh, okay, so there are surprises in store
oh you meant SURPRISES
wait what…why??
what is this??
shit that ending was bad— Jacob Jones (@jakejonesSWR) April 26, 2021
hope everyone enjoyed the last oscars ever
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) April 26, 2021
Streets saying the #oscars had an ending worse than Game of Thrones???? pic.twitter.com/KVaZWovU9p
— 👑 King Artie 👑 (@Artie_Thinks) April 26, 2021
That was a Game Of Thrones ending #Oscars
— Tula Jeng 🪷 (@whorange) April 26, 2021
Congratulations to Game of Thrones for no longer having the worst ending #Oscars
— carrie MET MATTHEW LILLARD (@carries_town) April 26, 2021
That was a LOST ending if I ever seen one.
— Jake Plunkett (@JakePlunkett) April 26, 2021
That's the worst TV ending since "Game of Thrones"
— Matt Brennan (@thefilmgoer) April 26, 2021
the end of the oscars was like having the lights come on at the bar with no last call warning
— anne t donahue (@annetdonahue) April 26, 2021
oscar producers moving the categories around to end on that heartwarming moment 💙 pic.twitter.com/6DMjlYUK8g
— David Mack (@davidmackau) April 26, 2021
Mare of Easttown solve the mystery of that Best Actor result!
— Guy Branum (@guybranum) April 26, 2021
Truly the most spectacular anti-climax to an awards show of all time. Joaquin Phoenix doesn't want to be there giving an award to someone who isn't there. Like the ending of a New Hollywood movie from 1973. Perfect.
— Ashley Clark (@_Ash_Clark) April 26, 2021
The worst TV ending since Game Of Thrones. #Oscars
— DMΛULΞRR #MΛULΞRGΛNG 🩸☝🏽 (@JoeMathew5) April 26, 2021
So what you’re telling me is much like Endgame, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars, the Oscars also fucked up it’s entire story arc with that ending?
— T 🇵🇸 (@TeaeNTee_) April 26, 2021
First up, it’s worth pointing out that Anthony Hopkins is truly excellent in The Father and absolutely deserved to win for it. And criticizing him for not being there to receive an award in person is stupid because he’s 83 and traveling halfway around the world during a pandemic is a very bad idea. Secondly, it’s understandable that he didn’t make a speech because of time differences. His publicists have confirmed that he was at his home in Wales where it was 4am when his award was announced.
But it was rather disappointing how the Academy was clearly banking on Chadwick Boseman winning and had restructured the schedule around it. I guess their thinking was that if he won, it’d have given the night a nice emotional climax and sent everybody away happy. As we all now know, though, that didn’t happen, leaving a weird finale that’s destined to regarded as a bum note in the history of the Academy Awards.