Oscar snubs: 10 MCU cast members who merited nominations

Angela Bassett didn’t quite do the thing and win the Academy Award this year, but she came mighty close. The iconic actress was nominated for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” for her powerful performance as Queen Ramonda, which was one of the star turns not only in the “Black Panther” sequel but in the entirety of the MCU. Bassett lost out to Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) but the fact that she was even nominated is something of a victory in and of itself. Her was the first acting bid the MCU has ever received — so Bassett is still very much a history-maker given the Oscars’ historically snobbish attitude towards superhero flicks.

But Bassett isn’t the only performer to wow audiences in an MCU movie — the franchise is actually littered with excellent performances that have been overlooked purely because they feature in superhero films. With that in mind, here are 10 performances in the MCU that deserved an Oscar nomination.

Robert Downey Jr — Best Actor — “Iron Man” (2008)
The obvious one is out of the way. Truthfully, we could have also chosen Downey Jr’s lead performance in “Avengers: Endgame” to go on this list but we thought we’d stick with just one — the one that started it all. Downey Jr helped to launch movie history and the MCU itself with this star-making turn as Tony Stark AKA Iron Man. Downey Jr wielded unparalleled charm in this role, which features a character arc that makes this the character-driven film it is. A Best Actor nomination would have been richly deserved in hindsight. The nominees that year were Richard Jenkins (“The Visitor”), Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler), Frank Langella (“Frost/Nixon”), Brad Pitt (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), and winner Sean Penn (“Milk”).

Tom Hiddleston — Best Supporting Actor — “The Avengers” (2012)
Hiddleston just had an absolute ball playing the deliciously-evil Loki in this first Avengers outing. He teased and toyed with each of the Avengers and relished being bad. His scene with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and the sequence in Germany were highlights in what was a playful, scenery-chewing showstopper of a performance. Hiddleston has gone on to give more complex performances as the character has changed into more of an anti-hero than an outright villain, but this is where all of the fun began. However, 2013 was an excellent year for supporting male performances and Hiddleston missed out to an incredibly strong lineup of Alan Arkin (“Argo”), Philip Seymour Hoffman (“The Master”), Robert De Niro (“Silver Linings Playbook”), Tommy Lee Jones (“Lincoln”), and winner Christoph Waltz (“Django Unchained”).

Robert Downey Jr — Best Supporting Actor — “Captain America: Civil War” (2016)
Another Downey Jr performance, yes, but this one deserves a spot of its own. If you go back and watch “Civil War” specifically looking out for Downey Jr’s performance as the tortured, conflicted Tony Stark, you can really notice how masterful it is. Every subtle facial expression, twitch of an eye, emphasis on particular dialogue — it’s a nuanced performance that really captures how fragmented Tony is as he tries desperately to keep the team (and his family) together. It’s a performance that gets better every time you see it. Downey Jr lost out to Michael Shannon (“Nocturnal Animals”), Lucas Hedges (“Manchester by the Sea”), Jeff Bridges (“Hell or High Water”), Dev Patel (“Lion”), and winner Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight”).

Chadwick Boseman — Best Actor — “Black Panther” (2018)
“Black Panther” amassed seven Oscar nominations, three wins, and a bid for Best Picture — but it was a shame that the leading man wasn’t recognized in the same way. Boseman’s presence as T’Challa AKA the Black Panther was one of the strongest in the MCU, combining easy charm, steely power, and appropriate intensity to give one of the most important leading performances in the MCU. Willem Dafoe (“At Eternity’s Gate”), Viggo Mortensen (“Green Book”), Christian Bale (“Vice”), Bradley Cooper (“A Star is Born”), and Rami Malek (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) were all nominated ahead of him.

Josh Brolin — Best Supporting Actor — “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)
Andy Serkis paved the way for motion capture performances with his Oscar-deserving role as Gollum/Smeagol in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and it led to the MCU embracing utilizing the technology to give us one of the most iconic villains in cinema history. “Infinity War” is very much Thanos’ film and Brolin gives the villain the needed weight, melancholy, brutal determination, and self-righteous sense of tragedy to turn this character from a purple bad guy to a complex villain who kind of has a point. He missed out on a Supporting Actor nomination in 2019 but there was a campaign. It wasn’t enough, however, and Sam Rockwell (“Vice”), Sam Elliott (“A Star is Born”), Richard E. Grant (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”), Adam Driver (“BlacKkKlansman”), and winner Mahershala Ali (“Green Book”) were nominated instead.

Tony Leung — Best Supporting Actor — “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021)
Legendary Hong Kong actor Tony Leung graced the MCU with his quietly powerful performance in “Shang-Chi.” He played the villainous Xu Wenwu, father to Simu Liu‘s titular Shang-Chi, and delivered an understated, captivating performance that left you hanging on every word. Ultimately, this superhero film is a story about the broken relationship between father and son and how grief can consume someone — and Leung’s grounded performance helped to make this human superhero film fly. Kodi Smitt-McPhee and Jesse Plemons (both “The Power of the Dog”), JK Simmons (“Being the Ricardos”), Ciarán Hinds (“Belfast”), and winner Troy Kotsur (“CODA”) were all nominated ahead of Leung.

Marisa Tomei — Best Supporting Actress — “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021)
Tomei may not have had the largest amount of screen time in this movie but her character — Aunt May — had such a profound effect on the film and leading character Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man, that her impact is felt greatly. Plus — spoiler alert — she has a terrific, emotional death scene that serves as the turning point for Tom Holland‘s Peter and she gets to deliver that iconic great power/great responsibility line. Tomei would have been a worthwhile inclusion in this category in 2022 but couldn’t make the nominated lineup, which consisted of Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”), Judi Dench (“Belfast”), Jessie Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”), Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”), and winner Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”).

Elizabeth Olsen — Best Supporting Actress — “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022)
Olsen has become one of the most important players in the MCU since her debut in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” as Wanda Maximoff AKA the Scarlet Witch — and that culminated with her villainous turn in last year’s “Doctor Strange” sequel. Similar to Downey Jr’s supporting role in “Civil War,” Olsen’s layered performance gets better with each viewing — her maniacal expressions, desperation in her voice, and subtle facial movements all serve to bewitch audiences and steal the entire movie for herself. Her speech to Benedict Cumberbatch‘s Doctor Strange outside of Kamar-Taj is pick of countless excellent moments. Olsen would have been more than worthy of a Supporting Actress nomination but couldn’t squeeze into a lineup that was ultimately made up of Bassett herself, Hong Chau (“The Whale”), Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), and winner Curtis.

Letitia Wright — Best Actress — “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022)
Bassett’s costar, Wright, has something of a campaign for this movie, and deservedly so. As Shuri, the grieving sister of T’Challa (Boseman), Wright had to carry the film and embody the transformation into a leader that her character went through in the film. She did so wonderfully, holding the film together with emotion, power, and appropriate raw vulnerability. She and Shuri did Boseman and T’Challa proud. Wright lost out to nominees Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”), Cate Blanchett (“Tár”), Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”), Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) and winner Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”).

Tenoch Huerta — Best Supporting Actor — “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022)
Admittedly there are a lot of villains on this list but everyone likes a villain — and the Supporting Actor category loves a villain. Huerta’s Namor, the ruler of the underwater kingdom Talokan, is more of an anti-hero than an outright villain, but he has such a magnetic presence on screen that he threatens to almost steal the entire movie from everyone else. Judd Hirsch (“The Fabelmans”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”), Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan (both “The Banshees of Inisherin”), and winner Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) were nominated ahead of Huerta, but Huerta introduced himself to the MCU in notable fashion.

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