BAE-Watch: Benedict Cumberbatch May Be Up For An Oscar In 2018

Benedict Cumberbatch is the greatest thing to happen to motion pictures since the invention of Technicolor, so why hasn’t he won an Oscar yet?

It’s truly a sin that one of the greatest actors of our generation is sans an Academy Award on his mantle, but according to Radio Times, this will soon change. Cumberbatch’s role in A Current War, which is currently still filming, is already generating Oscar buzz. He will be playing Thomas Edison, who will be squaring off against George Westinghouse (played by Michael “General Zod” Shannon) in the race to bring electricity to the American public. (Spoiler alert: Edison will win the race)

The film also stars Katherine Waterston, Nicholas Hoult (of X-Men fame), Tom Holland and Matthew Macfadyen.

But if the movie is still in the filming process, why does Benedict Cumberbatch already have Oscar buzz? (Aside from the fact that he should win every award for everything.)

Simple: the film is set to be released on December 22, which is around the same time that La La Land — another Oscar favorite — was released. In the film industry, that time of year is considered the optimal time to release films that will catch the Academy’s eye for Oscar nominations.

If the buzz about Cumberbatch’s Best Actor Oscar win turns out to be true, it would be his first Oscar win. However, it wouldn’t be the first time he would be nominated for the Best Actor Oscar: in 2014, he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. However, he lost to fellow Briton Eddie Redmayne, who won for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. (Ironically, in 2004, Cumberbatch also played Stephen Hawking in a BBC TV movie, Hawking, which Redmayne claimed he didn’t watch to get any sort of inspiration, and shame on Redmayne for that!)

Next: Benedict Cumberbatch Heads to 19th Century America in The Current War

We think the phrase “Academy Award winner Benedict Cumberbatch” has a nice ring to it — don’t you?