The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Nick Fury, Samuel L. Jackson, believes Spider-Man: No Way Home deserves an Oscar.
Speaking to The Times while filming the upcoming Disney Plus series Secret Invasion, Samuel L. Jackson shared his belief that all movies are valid — and that he’s a guy who says “shit that’s on a T-shirt”.
“Some go to the cinema to be moved dearly. Some like superheroes. If somebody has more butts on seats it just means your audience is not as broad. There are people who have had successful careers but nobody can recite one line of their parts. I’m the guy who says shit that’s on a T-shirt.”
Samuel L. Jackson gave his support in particular to the idea of a Best Popular Film award category at the Academy Awards. The Best Popular Film category was earmarked to become official in 2018, but didn’t rally enough support at the time. The recent success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which helped keep theaters alive, is itself worthy of Oscar recognition, according to the veteran actor.
“They should have an Oscar for the most popular movie, because that’s what the business is about.” Spider-Man: No Way Home made $1.8 billion — should they give it an Oscar? “They should! It did what movies did forever — it got people to a big dark room.”
The award will be introduced this year — albeit in a slightly bastardized form called Fan Favorite Vote — and with this new category, the Academy seemingly hopes to address Jackson’s criticism, among others’, towards the annual industry awards ceremony. Whether or not the aforementioned will become a “true” Academy voted award will likely remain a talking point for a while.
Spider-Man: No Way Home did receive one nomination for the 94th Academy Awards, being a contender for Best Visual Effects.