Taika Waititi is halfway to an EGOT: ‘Our Flag Means Death’ could get him that Emmy
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Everyone loves an EGOT. The prestigious title goes to the select few who win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony across their careers — proving them to be at the top of their game in four entertainment fields (TV, music, film, and theater). So far, only 18 people have achieved the feat.
Among those who are halfway there is Taika Waititi. He won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2020 for “Jojo Rabbit,” ticking off the film segment of the EGOT. He then took home a Grammy for the same film in 2021 when he won Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media. That was number two.
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However, he has yet to win an Emmy or a Tony. He has never worked on Broadway, but he has reaped three Emmy bids to date. In 2020, he was nominated for Character Voice-Over Performance for playing IG-11 in “The Mandalorian” (he lost to Maya Rudolph for “Big Mouth”) and as a producer of the Best Comedy Series contender “What We Do in the Shadows,” which was bested by “Schitt’s Creek.” In 2022, his show lost again, this time to “Ted Lasso.”
“What We Do in the Shadows” is the spin-off of the 2014 mockumentary movie that followed four vampires living as flatmates in modern-day New Zealand. The show does briefly feature those vampires but mainly focuses on the bloodsuckers played by Matt Berry and Natasia Demetriou and instead takes place on Staten Island.
We are predicting that “What We Do in the Shadows” will contend again for Best Comedy Series agaim. Currently, it’s ranked seventh, just above our eighth and final predicted nominee “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Placing above them are “Wednesday,” “Barry,” “The Bear,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Abbott Elementary,” and, in top spot, “Ted Lasso.”
Waititi does have another route to checking off the third award in his potential EGOT status, though. He’s in the conversation for Comedy Supporting Actor for his role in his other show “Our Flag Means Death.”
“Our Flag Means Death,” which has a similar improvisational tone to “What We do in the Shadows,” chronicles the adventures of Rhys Darby in the early 1700s. He’s a wealthy landowner who has a midlife crisis and decides to pursue his dream and become a pirate. He soon sparks a relationship with Waititi’s fictionalized version of Edward Teach AKA Blackbeard, who has grown bored with life and is fascinated by Stede.
Waititi has been praised by multiple reviewers for his performance in the show as one half of this mismatched buddy duo.
Benji Wilson of The Telegraph wrote that the show is “gilded by the presence of Taika Waititi both as director of episode one and star turn as the famed bloodthirsty pirate Blackbeard- Blackbeard, the tough guy who wants to be a gentler man, is developed with surprising tenderness.”
Nick Schager of The Daily Beast wrote that Waititi rightly plays Blackbeard “as a ferocious weirdo who also boasts a private desire to be a gentleman.” He also wrote: “Darby and Waititi’s bonkers rapport is the mirthful wind in ‘Our Flag Means Death”s sails, propelling it into ludicrous mismatched-buddy-comedy territory.”
And The Ringer named the show the second best of 2022, writing that Waititi’s tender chemistry with Darby helps to make the show “so riveting” and “a genuine treasure.” They wrote: “It’s Bonnet and Blackbeard’s relationship, along with the eccentric pirates under their wing, that gives ‘Our Flag Means Death’ an unexpected depth and sincerity. The series always remembers it’s a comedy, but at the same time, the romantic underpinnings are never treated as a punch line.”
Waititi is in the second tier behind our predicted line-up of Tyler James Williams (“Abbott Elementary”), Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso”), Henry Winkler and Anthony Carrigan (“Barry”), Nick Mohammed (“Ted Lasso”), Tony Shalhoub (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), Harrison Ford (“Shrinking”), and Bowen Yang (“Saturday Night Live”).
If Waititi can turn either of these potential bids into cold, hard wins, he will have completed 75% of the EGOT. All that would be left for him to do is win a Tony. Watch this (potential) space. The latest EGOT winner was Viola Davis, who completed the feat in 2023 when she won a Grammy for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for “Finding Me.” Richard Rodgers won the first ever EGOT while Robert Lopez is the youngest EGOT-winner ever (completing it at age 39) as well as the person to achieve the feat in the shortest time span (10 years).
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