Miles Scott, also known as Batkid, was supposed to get to walk on stage at the Oscars this past Sunday, but his segment was cut just hours before the show.
Superheroes were being praised during The 86th Academy Awards this past Sunday and a segment including cancer survivor Miles Scott, aka Batkid, was going to be introduced after Captain America actor Chris Evans presented a montage of Hollywood’s superheroes.
Mashable reports that the Academy was going to pay tribute to Miles during a special segment where Andrew Garfield (Spider-Man) was going to introduce Miles as the world’s next superhero, at which point Miles was to walk on stage. Instead, Chris Evans simply introduced the montage of superheroes and Miles’ following segment was nowhere to be found.
We imagine it would have been a pretty incredible moment, as Batkid went viral after Miles was shown what a city can do when it comes together to make a kid’s dream come to life. It would have been a welcomed segment to what viewers thought was somewhat of a bland year at the Oscars.
The segment was reportedly rehearsed the day prior, but “got pulled in the early hours of Sunday morning without explanation.” What’s even more odd is Andrew Garfield didn’t show up to the Oscars at all. Now, he could have been told that the segment had been cut and so he decided not to attend, but it’s something we’ll be keeping an eye on.
An entire set was built for the segment, and Batkid can even be seen in bold letters on the custom stage built for the occasion (below). Miles is also on stage at that point, which was less than 24 hours before the start of the show.
But don’t beat up those in charge of The Academy too much, as Miles was sent on an equally exciting trip to Disneyland instead, with all expenses paid by the Academy Awards.
A source reported to Mashable that “of course Miles and his family were disappointed, it was heart-wrenching to speak to them. The last thing they wanted was to see their son disappointed.”
Make-a-Wish, which was who staged Batkid’s original superhero day, has explained that they were “not involved in any way with any decision about what did not or did make it in on-air that evening.”
It’s interesting that the segment was cut, but this isn’t entirely unusual. Segments at the Oscars get cut quite often, mostly due to time constraints, though this one is more of a gutwrencher due to the fact that it would have been a great experience for Miles.
The Academy has yet to respond to the report that the segment was cut, but we imagine they’ll have a response within the next 24 hours.