The Last of Us season two might have divided fans, but the new episodes were clearly a hit with Television Academy voters.
HBO‘s post-apocalyptic drama earned 16 Emmy nominations on Tuesday morning. While that’s fewer than the first season’s 24 noms, it still represents a terrific haul.
Perhaps the most interesting nomination is that Pedro Pascal was nominated for best actor. While Pascal’s performance was widely praised, his character Joel had very limited screen time, appearing in only three of the season’s seven episodes. The nomination is similar to Brian Cox’s nomination for the final season of HBO’s Succession, where his character was killed off in the season’s third episode.
Star Bella Ramsey was nominated for best actress for their portrayal of Ellie for the second season in a row. Plus, the show was also nominated for best drama.
Several other actors scored Emmy guest actor noms: Joe Pantoliano as Eugene, Jeffrey Wright as Isaac, Kaitlyn Dever as Abby and Catherine O’Hara as Gail.
The other Emmy nominations for The Last of Us include best production design, casting, picture editing, contemporary makeup, prosthetic makeup, music supervision, nonfiction short (for a making-of documentary), sound editing, sound mixing and special visual effects.
Some snubs include Isabela Merced’s performance as Gina, the writing categories and the directing categories (particularly Mark Mylod, who helmed the season’s second episode, “Through the Valley,” which was the episode submitted for four of the received nominations).
Here’s a list of nominations in key categories for the 77th annual Emmy Awards.
