Oscars 2021 Fans Lose Their Minds After Bizarre Ending

Sunday marked the biggest night in Hollywood, but the glamorous 2021 Oscars ceremony ultimately ended with a major disappointment for viewers after the Best Actor category closed out the night with Anthony Hopkins taking home the award. As a presenter and last year’s winner in the category Joaquin Phoenix opened the envelope and read the winner’s name, social media erupted with disbelief when Hopkins took home the Oscar instead of Chadwick Boseman.

When the ceremony kicked off the award for Best Original Screenplay, which ultimately went to Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman, it had largely been believed that the Best Actor in a Leady Role category was moved to the final category of the night, a spot otherwise reserved for Best Picture, because Boseman was going to win. Before the Oscars, Boseman had already posthumously beaten out his fellow nominees, including Hopkins, at both the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards. He earned rave reviews for his final performance as Levee, a gifted but troubled trumpet player, in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

The Best Actor Oscar, ultimately being handed to Hopkins, who was not in attendance, immediately ignited debate on social media. As Phoenix accepted the award on Hopkins’ behalf, viewers tuned into the hours-long broadcast took to Twitter to air their grievances. Keep scrolling to see what people had to say about the major upset that ended the night.

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“The Oscars were so sure that Chadwick Boseman was going to win that they REARRANGED THE ENTIRE CEREMONY so his category could be last, and then they gave the award to Anthony Hopkins instead,” one person reacted online. “The most chaotic and unhinged thing I’ve ever seen.”

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“Anthony was phenomenal. good for him truly. but how are you gonna 1) speed the absolute f– out of the in memoriam segment and 2) switch up the order of the awards to make your audience think you’re gonna give chadwick some sort of tribute and then just……. not,” another viewer tweeted. “Feels cruel.”

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“Anthony Hopkins is without fault. Class-act and brilliant performance in The Father. Truly, he, Boseman, and Ahmed were all neck and neck for me,” another person wrote. “Fault is on the Oscar producers who, for ratings, needlessly made the loss of an icon even harder on those anticipating his honor.”

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“An absent Anthony Hopkins winning over Chadwick Boseman during a ceremony built to end around a Boseman win while Joaquin Phoenix awkwardly stumbles through it all is…wow,” somebody else added. “Chaos!”

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“Holy s– Anthony Hopkins beating the late Chadwick Boseman AND Riz Ahmed AND Steven Yeun for Best Actor is just some go home with your heart in your belly stuff. What is even happening,” tweeted one viewer. “And he couldn’t even accept by Zoom? The Academy is just going to Postmates his statue to him, I guess? Presumably the producers didn’t know, but what a total anticlimax for an incredibly exciting evening.”

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“I don’t blame Anthony Hopkins for giving a great performance or the Academy for awarding it,” commented one person. “I take issue with the producers of the ceremony blatantly exploiting Chadwick for an ending high note only to tarnish the work of both thespians. Appalling.”

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Although Hopkins did not attend the ceremony, he took to Instagram Monday morning with a belated acceptance speech in which he paid tribute to Boseman. In the clip, Hopkins said, “I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman who was taken from us far too early, and again, thank you all very much.”