'House of the Dragon' Cast Shut out of Emmys, Despite Show's Other Big Nominations

By Michael Hein

House of the Dragon was one of the biggest TV hits of 2022, and while the show got several major Emmy nominations, the cast itself did not. The Television Academy announced the 2023 Emmy Awards nominations on Wednesday, and surprisingly, the stars of Westeros. In a series driven by characters and performance, many fans found this odd and disappointing.

House of the Dragon premiered in August of 2022 to plenty of fanfare – it is the first spinoff of Game of Thrones to reach the air, it has a bigger budget including more dragons than before, and it fit nicely into a slate of other epic fantasy adaptations coming out around the same time. Still, the show proved it was more than just pop art thanks largely to some of the gut-wrenching performances by its main cast. Through them, the dilemmas in the story came to inspire some serious philosophical debate among fans. To them, it's strange that those actors aren't the ones with nominations to show for their hard work.

House of the Dragon was nominated for nine Emmy awards – Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program for Episode 1, "The Heirs of the Dragon"; Outstanding Cinematography for a Series for Episode 8, "The Lord of the Tides"; Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-fi Costumes for "The Heirs of the Dragon"; Outstanding Period and/or Character Makeup for Episode 5, "We Light the Way"; Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for "The Lord of The Tides"; Outstanding Drama Series; Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series for the "Inside the Episode" segments; Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series for Episode 10, "The Black Queen" and Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie. It was left out of categories like Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series or Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, for example.

It's worth noting that industry awards seem to have favored the makeup, costumes, visual effects and set design on House of the Dragon. It won three BAFTA Awards – best makeup and hair design, best sound: fiction and best special, visual and graphic effects – as well as a Costume Designers Guild Award. It won the Golden Globe for best television series – drama. Accolades for the actors have not gotten past the nomination phase, for example, Emma D'Arcy was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama, which was not entirely well-received since D'Arcy is gender non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

House of the Dragon's best moments are ahead of it in the upcoming seasons, and there is plenty of time for the cast to get the applause they are due. In the meantime, many fans will be a little crestfallen watching this year's Emmys on Sept. 18.

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