Game of Thrones Scores 32 Emmy Nominations for Final Season, Setting a New Record
The Emmy Awards are coming — and Game of Thrones is a major player.
The HBO fantasy epic netted 32 Emmy Award nominations for its eighth and final season on Tuesday morning, including outstanding drama series, Kit Harington for best actor, Emilia Clarke for best actress, four best supporting actress nods (Gwendoline Christie, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams) and a trio of best supporting actor contenders (Alfie Allen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage).
That’s a new record for the most nominations for a series; GoT already boasts 260 Emmys and had been nominated over 700 times since it premiered in 2011.
“Many thanks to the Academy,” Harington tells PEOPLE in a statement. “It’s been an amazing journey with ol’ Jon Snow. I’m thrilled he’s been nominated.”
Despite nearly a decade of constant critical acclaim and fan fervor, Game of Thrones faced backlash over its last season, especially the controversial finale. (Editing mishaps like an anachronistic Starbucks cup didn’t help matters, either.) But the cast has put on a united front.
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“Everyone on Game of Thrones, every single person, and there are thousands ― we worked our a–es off to make the best show we could for the ending,” Coster-Waldau said recently at a fan convention.
“People always have an idea in their heads of how they want a show to finish, and so when it doesn’t go to their liking, they start to speak up about it and rebel,” Turner told The New York Times.
A prequel series written by A Song of Ice and Fire scribe George R.R. Martin is currently in development.
The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sept. 22 on Fox.
