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The 2026 Oscars showrunner/executive producer Raj Kapoor and executive producer Katy Mullan still view Conan O’Brien as the “perfect host,” with Mullan telling IndieWire over Zoom that the Emmy-winning comedian “has the best instincts for what works for him and also what works for the moment.” She added, “Not only did he navigate everything we were going through with the fires and everything else that was going on in the world, [he] also made it really entertaining. A really warm and reverential, but also really inclusive ceremony.”
The pair tease an even more ambitious show on the host’s end, since O’Brien has had a lot more time to prepare this go round. “Conan has some amazing pieces that are just going to unfold throughout the evening, and if anything, he’s going bigger, and his creativity has been unleashed to a new level,” said Kapoor. “There’s going to be some really brilliant cameos. There’s going to be some stars that you might not want to expect that probably wouldn’t come in unless it was Conan,” said Mullan. “There are surprises that are still coming into us every day where we’re like, ‘Oh my God, that idea maybe trumps another one’ because it’s just so great.”
Another exciting return to the Oscars this year is the Fab Five concept — here solely for the new Best Casting category. “We will have five presenters on stage. We really wanted to have the narrative of how important casting directors are to the film community, and so we are going to have five individual stories, all with different viewpoints,” said Kapoor. “We really want to make the viewer at home really understand the importance of this, and it also gave us the opportunity to have five additional presenters on stage.”
Controversially, the Oscars will go another year without performances for all five Best Original Song contenders, with only a performance of “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters,” plus “Sinners” stars Miles Caton, Jayme Lawson, and Li Jun Li with prima ballerina Misty Copeland and Grammy-winning singers Brittany Howard and Shaboozey to recreate the film’s “I Lied to You” scene. Kapoor explained that he and his fellow Oscar producers were thinking beyond that one category.
“It wasn’t really about not doing the other three [Best Original Song nominees]; it was about the two,” he said, citing “Sinners” status as the most Academy Award-nominated film of all time, and “KPop Demon Hunters” as a global phenomenon that became the most-watched film of all time on Netflix.
Katy Mullan and Raj KapoorEmma McIntyre“When we looked at how we were doing music on the show, it felt like there was an opportunity to celebrate those films as well in a bigger way. And they’re both super unique,” said Kapoor. “We’ve had some really amazing creative conversations with the directing teams from both [films], and it felt like it was an opportunity to not only amplify the music, but score and film and even costume. So we’re just approaching those performances in a different way, and it’s about celebrating those films and the global impact that they both have had.”
The producers are also putting more care into the In Memoriam segment, which will likely feature several Hollywood icons that died recently, including Oscar winners Robert Redford and Diane Keaton, and Oscar-nominated director Rob Reiner. “This year in particular, because of the people that we’ve lost, we really wanted to give it its full attention and spend some extra time and care in really putting that together in the right way that will hopefully be very emotionally impactful,” said Kapoor.
The overall look of the show has also taken priority. Mullan said one of her big takeaways from last year’s show was the importance of production design. “You have the biggest stars in the world who have traveled, been to the most amazing places,” she said, and what the show’s Emmy-winning production designers Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley “create in that room, and Raj and the whole team, through the creative and the screens and the lighting, when they walk in there, it has to feel like it’s the best party they’ve ever been to. It has to feel celebratory, and it also has to be a ‘wow’ that makes them in the pit of their stomach feel like they’re part of this incredibly special occasion.”
Kapoor said this year’s Oscars will feel “a lot more immersive than it’s ever felt before. When we walk in the room, we’re very much blurring the line between stage and audience, and the way the nominees packages happen in the room, the way the audience is actually able to enjoy the performances and monologues and all those moments, it feels much more immersive and attractive.” Mullan added that these choices keep the show’s evolving audience in mind, especially when thinking about how the ceremony now has a streaming option, and will eventually be broadcast on YouTube in a few years.
Conan O’Brien and costume designer Scott Cronick’s musical Sandworm creation (played by Alan Maxson) during an opening number for the 2025 OscarsPhoto by Kevin Winter/Getty Images“If you are not including the digital audience, if you’re not thinking about how to reach people of every generation everywhere they’re viewing and really making sure that you have pop culture centered in your show, and really listening and paying attention to how the landscape’s changing and how people are consuming, then you’re not really moving with the times,” she said. “It’s about just that real balance between respecting the tradition but also innovating and making sure that it cuts through and feels relevant.”
Mullan, Kapoor, O’Brien, and even past host and executive producer pair Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney were all recently invited into the Academy as Associates. In terms of how being more involved in the organization has impacted their approach to the 98th Oscars, Mullan said, “Every time you go to one of those events or every time you meet another Academy member, it’s just such an education in just how broad the field is, how many perspectives there are, how many POVs. One minute you’ll be talking to a filmmaker who’s from animation, and the next minute you’ll be listening to Kristen Stewart giving an empowerment speech about women in the film industry. So it just gives us a deeper appreciation and understanding of filmmaking, because we’re TV producers, and allows us to, in every way and shape we can, put that back into the show.”
‘We’ve become a little bit more ingrained into everything that the Academy does, but we’re always open to a conversation. We’re privileged to attend some of the board meetings. And just knowing that we more or less have an open door policy all the time, and we have a very close relationship with the Academy, and we’re always there to represent them in the best light,” said Kapoor. “We know how complicated putting a show on the Oscars is because, ultimately, we never have quite enough time, and we have a wealth of nominees and artists that we would love to shine a light on, and we really try to be as equitable as we can.”
The 2026 Oscars will air live on ABC and stream live on Hulu on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
English (US) ·