Could 2023 be the year of genre? Thanks to a pandemic that created a deep desire for escapist TV, there are more shows that fit into that box now than ever, many of which are eligible for Emmys this season. They include Amazon Prime Videos The Boys and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, HBOs House of the Dragon and The Last of Us, Showtimes Yellowjackets, Disney+s Andor and The Mandalorian, Paramount+s Star Trek: Picard, Netflixs The Sandman and AMCs Interview with the Vampire.
Of the eight series that Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis has predicted will get a nomination in the drama category, three would fall into the sci-fi or fantasy field: Game of Thrones offshoot House of the Dragon, video game adaptation The Last of Us and critical darling Yellowjackets.
Two years ago, Prime Videos The Boys became the first-ever comic book adaptation to land a nomination for top drama series in the Emmys race. At the time, even showrunner Erik Kripke was surprised by the nod.
In our internal conversations, we would say, You know, if you scratch beneath the surface of the superhero thing, theres a lot going on here that feels worthy of some recognition, Kripke said then. But no, I never expected this at all. I mean, at the end of the day, I was really hoping wed get some technical Emmys, because my team is just doing incredible work. And thats what I wanted. This would have been a great day if wed gotten two or three technical Emmys.
His shock was warranted: Technical categories are usually the best bets for shows like The Boys. In the end, The Crown won the Emmy trophy for drama in 2021, the last year that The Boys competed due to scheduling reasons; Rebecca Sonnenshine was nominated for writing but similarly lost to Crown scribe (and creator) Peter Morgan.
The genre genre is subjective, more of a you-know-it-when-you-see-it classification, not as clearly defined as a procedural or a period piece. But for the sake of argument, genre series incorporate themes of fantasy, supernatural, horror, superheroes, dystopian landscapes, alternate reality and, of course, comic-book and video game adaptations. In the modern era, HBOs Game of Thrones, Hulus The Handmaids Tale and ABCs Lost blazed trails on the kudos circuit for the genre gang.
Even though The Boys wasnt eligible last Emmy season, many other genre shows were and four landed nominations for drama series: Yellowjackets, Apple TV+s Severance, Netflixs Stranger Things and Squid Game. In 2021, additional genre fare such as Lovecraft Country, Handmaids Tale and The Mandalorian competed against The Boys, though they all lost to a more traditional drama, The Crown.
Its not surprising that fantasy and similar escapist-genres has begun to seep into the drama category, says Fandom CEO Perkins Miller. Weve seen a 23% increase in fantasy-centric and superhero content consumption during the last few years, beginning in 2020 during the pandemic.
Millers findings come from Fandoms proprietary Fan DNA data, collected from the habits of 350 million monthly visitors and 250,000 wiki communities across Fandom.com, a number of which are dedicated to these genre TV series.
The Last of Us was a true blockbuster, we saw that community increase 244% when the series aired, and Yellowjackets was another surprise genre hit with a 763% traffic increase among that fanbase during Season 2, Miller says. And fantasy audiences are among the most passionate entertainment consumers of drama content theyre five times more likely to watch Handmaids Tale and four times more likely to watch Russian Doll than the average viewer.
But will fandom favorites be reflected in the TV Academys Emmy choices? Genre dramas will be competing against last years winner, Succession, in addition to The White Lotus, which has moved from the limited series category to drama. According to one top talent PR exec, No matter how many fantasy or genre shows are in competition, it doesnt seem like anything can top Succession or White Lotus this Emmy season.