Oscars Host Search Is On And Deadpool & Wolverine Are In The Mix: The Dish
Yes, it’s that time again. The Oscar host hunt is on, and reliable sources tell Deadline that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are in the mix.
The plan we hear would be to include them as part of a star ensemble of rotating hosts, each — or in pairs — doing a portion of the show, per a plan to shake things up.
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In this regard, Deadline also has heard from sources that such stars as Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler and Dwayne Johnson also have been approached — not really surprising since it seems Johnson’s name is floated every year, but he has for various reasons resisted, and we have heard Poehler’a name on the Academy wish list ever since she successfully hosted the Golden Globes with Tina Fey.
Having Reynolds and Jackman prominently on the show would make perfect sense, of course. The pair are the title stars of Deadpool & Wolverine, a summertime smash and that’s the No. 2 movie of 2024 globally with $1.33 billion worldwide, just behind Inside Out ($1.69 billion). The threequel comes from Disney, which also owns ABC, the network airing the 97th Annual Academy Awards on March 2. Jackman hosted the universally praised 2009 show produced by Bill Condon and Larry Mark, and Reynolds is the kind of personality who seems tailor-made for the gig. It is a no-brainer. Plus, they successfully co-hosted ex-Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC talk show one night this summer when Kimmel was on vacation.
But would they do it? Reliable sources tell Deadline the outreach is real but there are mixed signals as to whether the stars are willing to participate. I would guess there also is the question of Disney’s and Marvel’s actual planned Oscar campaign for Deadpool & Wolverine, where I have heard Reynolds will be campaigned for Lead Actor and Jackman for Supporting.
Would they want to commit with that also looming as this awards season starts to take hold? Of course there are other factors afoot, and the Academy and its producers have been teasing, if not another hostless Oscar show — as we most recently had in 2019, 2020 and 2021 — then one with more of an emphasis on select presenters and talent that could also take the weight off the “host(s)” and essentially spread the wealth throughout the show. Rotating hosts is something that has been done quite a bit in Oscar show history. The last “multiple” hosts format was tried in 2022 with Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes, but, uh, all anyone talked about was Will Smith. This one, we hear, would be different in structure and include the other star teamings in elevated participation.
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Deadline also heard about Kevin Hart and Chris Rock as possibilities at one point, but it seems they are not in the mix. Rock hosted the show in 2005 and 2016 and most recently appeared in 2022 to present Best Documentary Feature and do a mini-monologue that ended with the aforementioned infamous Will Smith slapping incident, and Hart stepped down from his announced 2019 Oscar hosting gig after some homophobic tweets resurfaced from his stand-up routine a decade earlier. He made it clear earlier this year that he won’t ever host the Oscars, when he told Sky News what he thinks the real problem is. “Those gigs aren’t good gigs for comics. It’s no shot to the Oscars, no shot to the Globes or anything else. Those just aren’t comedy-friendly environments anymore,” he said. “I think they got it right one year where it was like just a bunch of personalities acting as the hosts, and that’s a nice thing. It’s a collaborative thing, different people get to be responsible for Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, but you know, the days of it being a room for a comic, those days are done.”
ABC’s late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has had a successful run of hosting in 2017, 2018, 2023 and earlier this year for the fourth time. He has declined to return this year as the amount of time he puts into the job, which he has said he only got paid $15,000 to do the first time, is a bit overwhelming for him at this time. The Academy is rather notorious in terms of paying these big players the kinds of salaries they normally would command. But he still is getting material out of it for his nightly Jimmy Kimmel Live! as Donald Trump continually disparages his Oscar hosting at his political rallies as the “worst ever,” even as recently as last week. Seven months later, Kimmel still is feasting on Trump’s obsession of his performance, especially when Kimmel decided to read Trump’s real-time “Truth Social” reactions at the end of the show. There was also a big-time commitment from Molly McNearney, Kimmel’s executive producer and wife, as well as his writing staff.
These gigs need heavy preparation for any comedian taking them on, as Jo Koy proved with his heavily criticized Golden Globe hosting in January, a job handed to him with little time to try out material or even write any of it.
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John Mulaney reportedly also was approached about hosting the upcoming Oscars but turned it down, and we have learned since that he will be very busy with his own upcoming 2025 variety talk show launch for Netflix. Mulaney made a real impression hosting the most recent non-televised Governors Awards for the Academy and simply killed with his monologue, as he also did as a presenter on the Oscars this year. He got the notice of the Academy, and hopefully someday he will do it.
Whoever hosts, in whatever way, will need to be convinced they have plenty of time to prepare, or at least get comfortable doing such a high-profile appearance. And this year does not appear to have the audience hook of a “Barbenheimer” showdown to goose ratings, a factor Kimmel said was a big reason he even agreed to do his fourth hosting gig.
The Golden Globes with Nikki Glaser and the Critics Choice Awards with the third consecutive turn by Chelsea Handler have given their smartly chosen hosts plenty of time to do that before those January ceremonies. That might be why there is pressure now to get someone in place. Usually they are announced by the Oscar show producers, but the Academy has yet to make a formal announcement on who that producing team will be. I am guessing, though, you probably can count on Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan to repeat after the successful 2024 show and winning an Emmy as Outstanding Variety Special (Live), the first time the Oscars have won in a Variety category since 1991. I am not sure if they do return that it also would be with McNearney since Kimmel isn’t hosting, but AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer has praised McNearney and said they were thrilled to have her no matter what.
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It is just not as easy as it once was to settle the matter of who will host the Oscars. The list was short depending on the era. Bob Hope did it 19 times (14 times solo). Johnny Carson did it five times consecutively, all solo. Billy Crystal came closest to Hope, doing it nine times solo, and Whoopi Goldberg — another ABC star — did it four times, just like Kimmel. Now, in the age of social media and instant criticism, stars are more anxious about taking it on. Just look what happened to Hart. David Letterman’s lambasted “Uma … Oprah” hosting in 1995 turned out to be his last, so even for someone of his stature, it can be a dicey proposition. Making the hosting chores part of a team effort with rotating stars obviously is an easier sell for most.
I doubt the Academy is willing to wait as long as the Primetime Emmys did this year in announcing a host. The Television Academy named Eugene Levy and Dan Levy as hosts on August 16, just one month before the show after a long search, as Deadline had revealed exclusively. Expect to hear something sooner rather than later, no matter who gets the gig or what form it will take.
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