Gold Derby recently conducted a poll asking our readers to name their dream Oscar host for the upcoming 2025 ceremony, and the winner is — drumroll, please — Hugh Jackman! The Australian performer is having a banner year thanks to his movie “Deadpool and Wolverine” dominating the box office, and longtime Oscar viewers still fondly remember when he hosted the 2009 ceremony to great acclaim (watch a clip below).
As it turns out, Jackman is very much “in the mix” to serve as this year’s host alongside his superhero counterpart Ryan Reynolds. As our sister site Deadline reports, “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.”
Jackman is a former Best Actor Oscar nominee for playing Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables” (2012), and this year he’s a contender in Best Supporting Actor for reprising his role as Logan Howlett in “Deadpool and Wolverine.” Reynolds won an Emmy for producing “Welcome to Wrexham” (2023) and also scored a Golden Globe bid for playing Wade Wilson in the original “Deadpool” (2016).
While Jackman leads our Oscar host poll results with 38%, two other contenders received double-digit support: RuPaul Charles at 19% and Conan O’Brien at 16%. Back in August, the Emmy-winning host and producer of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” threw his own name into the Oscar host search by saying, “I’m right here, bitch!” And O’Brien is a former two-time Emmy emcee who is having a resurgence because of his award-winning travel show “Conan O’Brien Must Go.”
Other potential Oscar hosts that received some support in our poll were Ariana DeBose (4%), Beyonce (4%), Lin-Manuel Miranda (4%), Trevor Noah (4%), Dwayne Johnson (3%), Angela Bassett (3%) and Taylor Swift (3%). Be sure to defend your dream choice down in the comments section.
In the Oscar flashback video below from February 22, 2009, watch as Jackman sings an original tune about nominated films “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Milk,” “The Dark Knight,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Reader” and “The Wrestler.” He also teams up with his future “Les Misérables” co-star Anne Hathaway for a comical tribute to “Frost/Nixon.”
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i don’t know how to share my opinions without coming off rude and using “allegedly and for entertainment purposes only” multiple times. please do not let Jackman and Reynolds host the Oscars. i’d give the gig to Will Smith as an apology before i’d give it to them.