13 Unexpected Actors Who Might Win Oscars In 2020

13. Robert Downey Jr. (Best Supporting Actor - Avengers: Endgame)

The Role: Everybody's favourite genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist, Tony Stark aka Iron Man.

There's no denying Robert Downey Jr.'s acting talent - and indeed, he was nominated for Best Actor (Chaplin) and Best Supporting Actor (Tropic Thunder) Oscars in 1993 and 2009 respectively - but there's also no doubting the intense anti-comic book bias within the Academy.

With Logan earning a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination last year and Black Panther getting a Best Picture nod this year, however, the Oscars do slowly but surely appear to be taking superhero fare more seriously.

To date, Heath Ledger's posthumous performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight is the only superhero role to win an acting Oscar, but with Avengers: Endgame likely signalling the end of Tony Stark's journey in the MCU one way or another, it's possible Downey could scoop a gold statue.

If Stark's arc throughout the movie is as bleak and emotional as it seems to be, this combined with his stature as the figurehead of the MCU could result in him getting a "career Oscar" of sorts.

Best Supporting Actor is always a neat category for more adventurous performances to be rewarded - case in point, both Ledger and Downey being nominated in 2009 - and so the MCU's first acting win certainly isn't totally outside the realm of possibility.