Knight of the Seven Kingdoms brings Game of Thrones back to awards season
Overview & Key Takeaways
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms marks a return to form for Game of Thrones, which previously set the record for most Emmy wins of all time.
After a brief break, Game of Thrones is finally back in the Emmys discussion thanks to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The Television Academy announced this year's Emmy Award nominations, and AKOTSK is up for an impressive nine awards at the ceremony, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Cinematography.
Here is the series' full list of nominations for the 78th Emmy Awards, with the show's lone Primetime Emmy Award nom bolded:
- Outstanding Drama Series
- Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Program (Half-Hour)
- Outstanding Period Or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Hairstyling
- Outstanding Cinematography For A Series (Half-Hour)
- Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes
- Outstanding Stunt Performance
- Outstanding Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation
- Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Original Dramatic Score)
- Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Single Episode
Given the franchise’s recent struggles, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a breath of fresh air. Instead of focusing on grandiose power struggles with a dozen perspective characters throughout Westeros, the series operated on a much more granular scale, centering on the lowborn hedge knight “Ser” Duncan and his unlikely squire, Egg, many years before the events of the original Game of Thrones.
Its six episodes were largely based around a single jousting competition, but it found clever ways to raise the stakes, culminating in an outstanding fifth episode that paid off its slow build with some classic Game of Thrones-style emotional devastation. The show aired from Jan. 18 to Feb. 22 on HBO and HBO Max. It’s been renewed for a second season that’s expected in 2027.
While Game of Thrones was an awards-season mainstay, having won an all-time high of 59 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Drama Series in 2015, 2016, 2018, and (somewhat laughably) in 2019, the spinoff House of the Dragon broke the franchise’s impressive streak with a no-show for Outstanding Drama in 2025. While House of the Dragon's first season was nominated for nine Emmys, including Outstanding Drama, and won for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes, the second season of HOTD received only six noms — all of them Creative Arts Emmy Awards for categories like hairstyling, costumes, and makeup. Perhaps more damning is that no one made a stink about the lack of award buzz, mostly because that season was a bit of a snooze-fest that ended in an anticlimax.
Thankfully, 2026 has been a much kinder year for A Song of Ice and Fire fans. On top of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms making the leap to the screen with aplomb, House of the Dragon’s third season has been great in its first three episodes, opening with a stunning battle before settling into propulsive political intrigue. Despite an absence of bloodletting, the latest episode was an absolute nightmare that captured what it’s like to be under the Sword of Damocles. With the run House of the Dragon is on, it’s quite possible that two Game of Thrones spinoffs will be up for awards at the next Emmys.
The 78th Emmy Awards will air on Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. EDT / 5 p.m. PDT on NBC and will stream on Peacock.
