Fiona Shaw (‘Andor’) poised to make Emmy history

Nick Bisa
·4 min read
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With the ongoing Emmy decorated run of Disney’s “The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars” has reentered the awards circle. The hit drama series has garnered multiple nominations for its first two seasons both above and below the line. While it has won 14 Emmys to date, none of the actors has prevailed.

Another “Star Wars” series, “Andor,” could break that curse. The show is much more small-scaled than “Mando” and plays a lot closer to Emmy friendly political dramas of the past. The critical reception emphasises this aspect; the series has a stellar 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences have warmed to it and the series holds an 8.4 IMDb rating.

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Like many other genres hits, “Andor” will likely fare exceptionally below-the-line. But, the more prestige-leaning, politically charged vision of creator Tony Gilroy (Oscar nominee for both writing and directing) will help it pierce above-the-line categories. This is reflected in our odds, where the series is currently widely predicted to land multiple above-the-line nominations including Best Drama Series (8th in our odds), Drama Actor (8th in our odds), Drama Supporting Actor (12th in our odds), Drama Guest Actor (4th in our odds) and Drama Guest Actress (5th in our odds). In the Drama Guest Actress category, a unique phenomenon is taking place, and could lead to the first acting Emmy for “Star Wars.”

Fiona Shaw is the emotional core of the entire series. She plays Maarva Andor, a silent trailblazer in the rebel revolution against the Empire, and Cassian’s loving and compassionate mother. She features in five episodes of the show, which for context equals the combined episode count of her competitors Melanie Lynskey (1st among our experts) and Anna Torv (3rd among our experts) from “The Last of Us”, as well as that of Harriet Walter (2nd among our experts), Cherry Jones (4th among our experts) and Hiam Abbass (6th among our experts) from “Succession.”

She has a host of material that showcases to the TV academy the pedigree of her performance. She’s the apple in a crate of oranges. Among the predicted top 6 to be nominated in the category, Shaw is the only actress not part of either “The Last of Us” or “Succession.” And if the love for “Andor” is as strong among Emmy voters as it is everywhere else, an upset is afoot.

The multiplicity of actors to vote for from the same series could cause a vote split. This allows more localised pockets of passion to triumph over the Emmy juggernauts. Examples include the Limited Directing win for Netflix’s “Unorthodox” over “Watchmen” in 2019, or the Drama Guest Acting win for “Ray Donovan” (Hank Azaria) over “House of Cards” and “Game of Thrones” in 2016.

It must be emphasised though, that this wouldn’t be a win out of nowhere for Shaw. The past five years, she has been Emmy-nominated three times (twice in Drama Supporting Actress for “Killing Eve”, once in Comedy Guest Actress for “Fleabag”). On top of this, Shaw has had an illustrious theatre career at the west end, having won two Olivier awards (“Machinal”, “Electra / As You Like It / The Good Person of Szechwan”). She’s no stranger to Broadway either and has a Tony nomination (“Medea”) to show for it. She’s appeared in Best Picture nominees “My Left Foot” and “Tree of Life”, and is known the world over for her wicked turn as Petunia Dursley in the iconic “Harry Potter” film series.

The situation and the nature of her role helps her, sure, but it’s about time Fiona added an Emmy statuette to her already decorated mantle. The “Star Wars” world deserves acting recognition too.

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