Awards Analysis: Will ‘The Crown’ be to Di for at the Golden Globes and SAG?

Tyler Doster January 5, 2021

While most shows allow actors to create characters over the course of several seasons, a time period that gives them the chance to give definition to their characters over time. The Crown is not most shows. A series that rotates the main cast every two seasons, the royal drama allows its actors to draw a finer spotlight on their performances, highlighting different points in the characters’ lives. An awards-show darling, The Crown has gathered many accolades in its first three seasons and now hopes to add more in the coming season that includes the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards. In a year full of great performances, especially from this show, will the actors in The Crown find their biggest competition this awards season to be…each other?

The Crown already has three Golden Globe awards for past seasons, including one for both women who have portrayed Queen Elizabeth II so far in the series (Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, for the first and third seasons, respectively). It also took home the award for Best Drama Series for its very first season and has been nominated for every season since, so it shouldn’t prove difficult for the fourth season to find itself nominated. Olivia Colman is sure to find herself once again vying for Best Actress in a Drama Series since she just won last year for the same role. While the Globes haven’t given out this award to the same actress in the same role for two consecutive years since Claire Danes won back-to-back in the category in 2011 and 2012 for her performance in Homeland, Colman surely gives another fine performance that should grab voters enough to at least earn her another Globe nomination. While Colman might find herself competing with the likes of Sarah Paulson from Ratched or Laura Linney from Ozark, her biggest competition will likely be from her own co-star. Emma Corrin, who delivers a star-making performance as Princess Diana in the show’s fourth season, is also being run in the lead category, marking the first time another actress other than the one playing Queen Elizabeth has been pushed in the lead category. It’s a bold move, but a smart one. If Corrin was run in the supporting actress category, she’d find herself going against even more performances from the show, as both Helena Bonham Carter and Gillian Anderson are both being run in the supporting category for the season. Bonham Carter has already found herself nominated before for her performance as Princess Margaret, but this is Anderson’s first season with the show. Already a Golden Globe winner herself for her work on The X-Files, Anderson is sure to find a spot for her steely portrayal of Margaret Thatcher.

Things have changed slightly when it comes to the men of The Crown. Tobias Menzies, nominated for his performance in the lead actor category for the third season of the show, will now be run in the supporting actor category. Moving into this category could be a smart placement for Menzies, who didn’t win in the lead category last year and whose role isn’t as prominent as the previous season. While Menzies gives a fine performance, it isn’t as flashy as the rest of the performances in the show and isn’t as big of a role when compared to other roles, which could put him at a disadvantage when it comes to winning the award. Replacing him in the lead category will be Josh O’Connor for his performance of Prince Charles, a role that has jumped to the forefront in the series and has allowed O’Connor to really broaden his performance as the audience is introduced to a married version of Prince Charles that changes the character. O’Connor hasn’t been nominated previously at the Globes, which is exactly why he’s got a great chance of winning. The Globes love honoring new talent, emphasis on the new. He might have already been in season three, but since his performance has been elevated so much, he’s likely to get recognized by the Globes this year.

The SAG awards will prove to be slightly different since there are only five nominees for both Outstanding Actor and Actress in a Drama Series with supporting performances being lumped in with lead performances. Last year, Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter were both nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, but this year will probably be different. There are so many actresses in The Crown and only five spots in the drama actress category. While, in recent years, the SAG has nominated two actresses from the same show, they’ve never nominated three from the same show. Could this year be the first? With Olivia Colman already having gotten a nomination for the role before and still being placed in the lead category, it seems sure that she will earn herself another nomination. It seems that Helena Bonham Carter might not receive another nomination this year, but will her nomination go to Emma Corrin or Gillian Anderson? While both of these actresses delivered incredible performances this year, it seems that Emma Corrin might be the one to receive the nomination, even if Anderson has been nominated before for a SAG Award and Corrin has not. It seems that the men might have the potential to take up two slots in the Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series category. Though neither have been nominated before, Tobias Menzies and Josh O’Connor both give fine performances in the fourth season. If only one of them is to get nominated, chances are it would be O’Connor for his leading role as Prince Charles.

The series should find itself being nominated for the top prizes at both the Globes and the SAG awards. At the Globes, the first season won for best drama series, and this latest season could bring it another series win with its extremely positive critical reception. The more actors that get nominated from the show, the more its chances increase of receiving a nomination for best drama series and even its chance of winning the award. Since it has been a while since the Globes have given it the series award, but it has been repeatedly nominated, now could be the time it wins for the second time. When it comes to the SAG award for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series, The Crown’s chances of winning are looking royal. The series just won last year for the same award and with so many great performances in the show’s fourth season, it seems to be the series to beat for that award this year. Both of these award shows will predict how the series will do at the Emmys later this year.

Images courtesy of Olie Upton, Sophie Mutevelian, Liam Daniel and Des Willie/Netflix

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Tyler Doster

Tyler is the TV Awards Editor for AwardsWatch and from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He’s been obsessed with movies and the oscars since he was about 14. He enjoys reading, but even more, talking about Amy Adams more and will, at any given moment, bring up her Oscar snub for Arrival. The only thing he spends more time on than watching TV is sitting on Twitter. If you ever want to discuss the movie Carol at length, he’s your guy. You can find Tyler at @wordswithtyler