John Legend And Morgan Freeman Are Academy Award Presenters

This year's Oscars telecast might be the most diverse in the 88-year history of the Hollywood institution — right up until they start giving out the actual awards.

Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman and R&B crooner John Legend are among the latest batch of presenters announced by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

As outrage mounts over a second straight year in which no actors of color were nominated, cynics may dismiss such moves as wallpapering over a much deeper diversity issue plaguing the industry.

"Star Wars" director J.J. Abrams, "Borat" star Sacha Baron Cohen, and Superman himself, Henry Cavill, were also added as presenters. Producers also announced a special performance by the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl.

The new names add to a racially diverse cast of presenters already enlisted by the Academy, the body that presides over the Oscars.

The previously announced bold-faced names handing out the gold statuettes are: Patricia Arquette, Abraham Attah, Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Louis C.K., Steve Carell, Priyanka Chopra, Common, Russell Crowe, Benicio del Toro, Chris Evans, Tina Fey, Ryan Gosling, Louis Gossett, Jr., Kevin Hart, Quincy Jones, Michael B. Jordan, Lady Gaga, Byung-hun Lee, Jennifer Garner, Whoopi Goldberg Jared Leto, Rachel McAdams, Julianne Moore, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel, Eddie Redmayne, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie, Jason Segel, Andy Serkis, Sarah Silverman, J.K. Simmons, Sam Smith, Charlize Theron, Jacob Tremblay, Sofia Vergara, Kerry Washington, The Weeknd, Pharrell Williams and Reese Witherspoon.

That will look good on television during the Feb. 28 ceremony, but won't change the fact that "The Revenant" director Alejandro Iñárritu, who is of Mexican descent, is the only person of color with a shot at winning an Oscar in one of the major categories.

The Feb. 28 telecast, which airs on ABC, will be hosted by Chris Rock, no stranger to tackling racial issues with humor. The "SNL" alum is expected to mine the issue in his monologue.

"(We) will have true diversity and will represent what the world looks like," David Hill, who is producing the telecast with Reginald Hudlin, told Variety during last week's Oscar Nominees Luncheon.

The revelation of the racially imbalanced slate of nominees this month landed the hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite, a starring role on social media. Filmmaker Spike Lee and actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith are among the high-profile celebrities who have announced that they would not attend or watch.

Lee told the Daily News in November that the problems start much further upstream than inside the Dolby Theatre, where the Oscars are held — all the way into the boardrooms and offices where casting and greenlighting decisions are made.

"The truth is the truth," Lee said at the time. "It's not a lie that it's easier for an African American to become president of the United States of America that to be put in charge of a Hollywood studio. Or a broadcast or cable network."

But substantive change may be on the horizon for future Oscars. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs is facing pushback from many industry veterans over radical changes to the membership and voting rules that would open access.

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