Steven Soderbergh says Oscars were ending on best actor 'if there was even the possibility' Chadwick Boseman would win

The late Chadwick Boseman's brother, Derrick, immediately dispelled any notion that the family was upset over Anthony Hopkins claiming best actor at the 93rd Academy Awards on April 25, but loads of viewers were—and are likely still—big mad.

Steven Soderbergh, who produced the broadcast alongside Jesse Collins and Stacey Sher, is now explaining why the categories were shuffled to place best actor as the show's closer rather than the usual best picture ending.

Soderbergh told Mark Olsen for The Los Angeles Times:

"That was something we were going to do well before the nominations came out—we talked about that in January. It's our belief—that I think is not unfounded—that actors' speeches tend to be more dramatic than producers' speeches. And so we thought it might be fun to mix it up, especially if people didn’t know that was coming. So that was always part of the plan. And then when the nominations came out and there was even the possibility that Chadwick could win posthumously, our feeling was if he were to win and his widow were to speak on his behalf, there would be nowhere to go after that. So we stuck with it.

"...If there was even the sliver of a chance that he would win and that his widow would speak, then we were operating under the fact that was the end of the show. So it wasn’t like we assumed it would, but if there was even a possibility that it would happen, then you have to account for that. That would have been such a shattering moment, that to come back after that would have been just impossible."

Best picture was shuffled to third-to-last, followed by best actress (claimed by Frances McDormand) and best actor.

Instead of the emotional moment in Boseman's honor that everybody was expecting would close the ceremony, the award was given to Hopkins for his work in The Father—making history as the oldest-ever winner in any Oscar category—and the moment was made clunkier because the 83-year-old was not physically present.

Boseman, who died last August after a secret four-year fight against colon cancer, was nominated in the category for his portrayal of trumpet player Levee in Netflix's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom—his final role. 

Hopkins recognized Boseman in his remote acceptance speech posted after the Oscars ended: