Taika Waititi won his first Oscar on Sunday, February 9th. He won in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for his 2019 film Jojo Rabbit. He took home a little golden man in exchange for a beautiful, brash and bewildering tale about a young boy with an imaginary friend in the form of Adolf Hitler.

Taika Waititi co-stars as Adolf Hitler in Jojo Rabbit.

Waititi co-stars in Jojo Rabbit as the imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler.

Jojo Rabbit is based on Christine Leunens’s book Caging Skies. It’s impressive that a fairly unknown property was able to contend with such venerable competition. Jojo went up against Greta Gerwig’s beloved retelling of Little Women and Todd Phillips’ take on the Joker character. Other nominees included Anthony McCarten for The Two Popes and Steve Zaillian for The Irishman. In the end, none could defeat a ten-year-old Nazi.

My speculation is this:

My hypothesis is that Disney secretly pulled the strings to ensure Waititi won his Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. “Why,” you ask? By bolstering his stature in the industry they would be able to more effectively market future Waititi-directed Disney properties.