Game of Thrones is starting off awards season in a great way this year, and we can add the SAG Awards to the list of things to be excited about, now. The nominations for the 23rd Annual Screen Actor Guild Awards were announced today, and GoT and one of its stars has once again made the cut!
Perennial SAG nominee Peter Dinklage will once again represent Game of Thrones in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series. He’s never won in the category, but perhaps this will be his year?
There will be some incredibly tough competition for him this year. The other nominees include Sterling K. Brown of This Is Us, John Lithgow who has been wowing people as Winston Churchill in The Crown, recent Emmy winner Rami Malek of Mr. Robot, and Kevin Spacey, a longtime favorite for House of Cards.
There’s good news for the whole cast this fine day, though. Game of Thrones is up for the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. The cast will face off against the casts of The Crown, Downton Abbey, Stranger Things, and Westworld.
The cast members included in the award nomination are:
Alfie Allen
Jacob Anderson
Dean Charles Chapman
Emilia Clarke
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Liam Cunningham
Peter Dinklage
Nathalie Emmanuel
Kit Harington
Lena Headey
Conleth Hill
Kristofer Hivju
Michiel Huisman
Faye Marsay
Jonathan Pryce
Sophie Turner
Carice van Houten
Gemma Whelan
Maisie Williams
As always, the nomination is dependent upon the number of episode appearances in the season which is why you may not see some familiar names like Natalie Dormer, John Bradley, Hannah Murray, or Diana Rigg included in the list.
And of course, this year, the incredible stunt crew of Game of Thrones is nominated for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series. GoT has won the Stunt Award several years running. Can they pull it off again? With the epic work on “Battle of the Bastards,” it seems likely, but you can’t take anything for granted where there are shows like Daredevil, Luke Cage, The Walking Dead, and Westworld aiming for the prize too.
The awards will be given out in the live ceremony on January 29th, so tune in to TNT and TBS at 8PM ET/ 5PM PT to root for Game of Thrones!
Go Thrones!
With future seasons consisting of 7 and (apparently) 6 episodes, the magic number of appearances necessary for the SAG Ensemble nomination will be 4 in both cases (as the requirement is that you be in above 50% of the episodes).
Though I expect that next season, which a slimmed-down cast and less narrative space overall, we’ll see a lot more people getting 6/7 of 7 episodes per season.
As far as the Ensemble’s prospects for winning, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Downton clearly has a huge fanbase, but The Crown could easily take a lot of that vote this time (if it takes the lion’s share, it could win). Meanwhile, however, Westworld and Stranger Things belong to the same sort of pulp fiction category as GOT does. I’m not sure who I’d rate as being favoured to win. If you assume GOT had the second-most votes last year, I think it might be, but who knows?
Unrelated to the show, absolutely thrilled at Millie Bobby Brown getting nominated. Stranger Things wouldn’t be nearly as good without her.
Hodor! This is good news. I hope they all win. I can’t help but wish Lena Headey had been nominated, The stunt crew has won the SAG award before, but for the main cast after all these years–it would be lovely and appropriate. I think the fact that GoT is so episodic and each episode (excepting Blackwater) is divided into smaller and larger sequences means the ensemble doesn’t interact that much. Other shows don’g have that problem. Unfortunately, this year we’re also up against Westworld, and even the HBO faction will be divided.
Sean C.,
I was going to ask about the shortened seasons and how that would work. Thanks!
I hope the cast wins this one.
It’s rather a shame that it’s the number of episodes and not the amount of time featured in them for the cast…but excited for them nonetheless!
We’re so lucky to be fans of a shows that’s been awarded and nominated so much over the entire run of the series. All of these later ones are just icing. 🙂
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Somewhat on topic:
I’d initially ignored The Crown and wasn’t going to watch it since I figured it would be some stodgy political history program that I usually don’t enjoy. Also being in the US I’m not all that attuned to the inner workings of the British royal family. Two nights ago though I decided to give it a shot. It’s actually really interesting to me and I’ve already watched eight of the episodes! Who knew!? It’s funny because while I’m watching I end up grabbing my cell about every ten minutes to look up a person or event to get more information. I really do recommend it. To me it’s not GoT level entertainment but still a very good program.
That’s weird, no Gwen Christie?
D’Arcy,
She was only in 5 episodes (601-2, 604-5, 608). She needed 6.
She (and Daniel Portman) actually only made the SAG Ensemble cut for Season 5 on the basis of their three-second, wordless appearance in episode 507.
D’Arcy,
no isaac? no kristian? how is the ensemble decided? gwen isaac and kristian had bigger roles than some of these other names that were included.
Really hope they win, they are such a amazingly ensemble cast and they deserve it.
Sean C.,
Ah gotcha. weird rule but it makes sense then.
Mmm…they have it hard this year with Westworld in the mix…Peter will probably lose to John Lithgow,as well…If he hasn´t win for his other flashier seasons he probably won´t for this one,for it has been a weaker season for his character
itse,
I don’t think it’s weird. GOT is unusual in how few appearances many of its characters make. Quite a few regulars appeared in only 2-4 episodes this year. 5 is more borderline, but there’ll alway be people on the wrong side of whatever the cutoff is.
Soooo happy for the all involved with GoT!! So well deserved!! I wish Kit had been nominated instead of Peter, he was amazing this season! I’m happy for Peter but would have preferred Kit get recognized for his hard work! Will definitely be watching and rooting for all the nominees! Congrats to all!??