The Golden Globes nominations are in and television shows including Big Little Lies, The Crown and AppleTV’s The Morning Show have earned nods. But despite being a cultural touchstone for the past decade, surprisingly Game of Thrones was almost completely snubbed - earning just one acting nod for the 'King in the North' Kit Harington and no nominations for his co-star Emilia Clarke.
Harington was nominated for Lead Actor in a Drama Series, alongside Mr Robot’s Rami Malek, The Crown’s Tobias Menzies, Succession’s Brian Cox and red carpet legend Billy Porter from Pose.
None of the women from Game of Thrones were nominated for awards and the lack of overall nods is in stark contrast to the high number of nominations the HBO series earned at the Emmy Awards.
Twitter users were angered over snubs to the show’s female cast - particularly Lena Headey and Emilia Clarke.
One Twitter user wrote, “How do award shows constantly snub the two best actresses of Game of Thrones??? Emilia and Lena carried the show on their backs.”
Fans of Headey, whose role was cut down considerably in the final season, were angry on her behalf. One user wrote, “lena headey really carried game of thrones ON HER BACK for 8 seasons straight and she got NOTHING, the idiocy really jumped out.”
Another wrote, “Emilia and Lena deserved it more.”
A reaction GIF was all one user needed, as they tweeted, "should've been emilia."
Game of Thrones’ official Twitter account also shared out the news, congratulating Harington on his nomination. But fans then piled into the comments to give their own opinions.
Many called out the fact that the final season was not the show’s greatest, with one writing, “He deserves this just for putting up with the incredible amount of BS GoT put him through last season.”
Another wrote, “Nominated for literally saying 'I don't want it' and 'you're my queen' and other low quality dialogue and not having any real story arc for an entire season. Kit's a great actor, but he was badly misused in season 8.”
And in a savage cut to the bone, one user tweeted, “Congrats to Kit! He deserves the recognition for his brilliant two lines of dialogue.”
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Another fan account for Clarke wrote, “Emilia Clarke deserves every single recognition for her work this finale season of Game Of Thrones. I don’t see why she’s being robbed continuously by every award shows [sic]. If she will not win at least give the recognition she deserved.”
Another also felt that Sophie Turner deserved a nod for her role as Sansa Stark.
Others also called out the fact that Harington was nominated, while other stars like The Handmaid’s Tale actress Elisabeth Moss “didn’t get nominated at all.”
“Not at Kit Harington getting nominated for best actor for a drama series while Elisabeth Moss, an ACTUAL actress didn’t get nominated at all for the golden globes???” one user wrote.
Following a list of Actor in a Drama Series nominations, another simply wrote, “KIT HARINGTON??????”
Some pointed out that even though Harington’s storyline in the final season was disappointing to many, the nomination is a reflection of his work throughout the entire series.
One wrote, “I think his entire performance throughout the entire show is being taken into consideration. That’s probably why he was nominated. They had a bad season, we all know this, but Kit isn’t the one to blame for the script. He wasn’t given the opportunity to be a power character."
“Yea they basically did this for the sake of it being the final season. Nothing about season 8 deserves a single award,” another chimed in.
The women of Game of Thrones were not the only ones to be snubbed this year, as female directors were completely absent from the list of nominations.
Despite a stellar year for films by female directors including Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, none of the directors made the cut.
Last year, the Emmys were criticised onstage by Natalie Portman for shutting out female directors. Natalie Portman, who presented the award for Best Director alongside Ron Howard, made a point of saying, “And here are the all-male nominees.”
Other films directed by women including Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird had been eligible for the accolade. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water won that year.
Earlier this year, Game of Thrones was nominated for a whopping 32 nominations for its mammoth final season. Six women were nominated for Emmys including Supporting Actress nominees Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Gwendoline Christie, Outstanding Guest Actress nominee Carice van Houten and finally Lead Actress nominee Emilia Clarke - Christie and van Houten notably self-submitted for the award .
Fewer male actors for Game of Thrones received Emmy nominations than women, with Kit Harington standing in for Lead Actor while Alfie Allen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage were up for Outstanding Supporting Actor.
Game of Thrones: Season 8 - In pictures
