'The Mandalorian' receives 24 Emmy nominations, including Best Drama Series

The "Star Wars" live-action spin-off "The Mandalorian" on the streaming service Disney Plus received a whopping 24 nominations in 19 categories for the 2021 Emmy Awards, tying with Netflix royal family drama "The Crown," that also received 24 nominations. The nominations for the second season top the 15 that it received last year.

Sadly, the sci-fi genre wasn't well represented in this year's nominations, which were announced Tuesday  (July 13). Again. It seems only the big franchise names received any kind of attention. There was nothing for "The Expanse" on Amazon Prime Video or "For All Mankind" on Apple TV+ or HBO's "Raised By Wolves" — and while that show gradually descended into insanity as Season 1 concluded, the actual performances were outstanding. And what about SyFy's "Resident Alien" in the Comedy category? The eligibility period for 2021 submissions was from June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021, so all of those shows could've been recognized.

Pedro Pascal stars in "The Mandalorian" seen here with the show's main star, the pre-Empire gunship Razor Crest. (Image credit: Disney+)

The full list for "The Mandalorian" is as follows:

Outstanding Drama Series

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Giancarlo Esposito, as Moff Gideon.

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series

Timothy Olyphant, as Cobb Vanth in "Chapter 9: The Marshal."
Carl Weathers, as Greef Karga in "Chapter 12: The Siege."

While these are great choices, it might have been nice to see Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano nominated.

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

Dave Filoni for "Chapter 13: The Jedi."
Jon Favreau for "Chapter 16: The Rescue."

Arguably one of the most important categories in our opinion and sadly the quality of "Star Trek" is currently such that it's unlikely to soon appear in this category, but what about "For All Mankind" or "The Expanse"..? Filoni and Favreau go up against "Lovecraft Country," "FX Pose," "The Crown," "The Handmaid's Tail" and "The Boys" each of which only have one nomination.

Related: The best Disney Plus movies and shows for Star Wars

Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup

Brian Sipe, Dmitriew, Samantha Ward, Scott Stoddard, Pepe Mora, Cale Thomas, Carlton Coleman and Scott Patton for "Chapter 13: The Jedi."

Outstanding Music Composition For a Series (Original Dramatic Score)

Ludwig Göransson for "Chapter 16: The Rescue" — this would be a very well deserved award.

Outstanding Sound Editing For a Comedy or Drama Series (one hour)

Matthew Wood, David Acord, Richard Quinn, James Spencer, Benjamin Burtt, JR Grubbs, Richard Gould, Stephanie McNally, Ronni Brown and Jana Vance for "Chapter 13: The Jedi.

Outstanding Production Design For a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (one hour or more)

Andrew L. Jones, Doug Chiang, David Lazan and Amanda Serino for "Chapter 13: The Jedi."

Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (one hour)

Bonnie Wild, Stephen Urata, Shawn Holden and Christopher Fogel for "Chapter 13: The Jedi."

We're sure Grogu (AKA Baby Yoda) would be thrilled with "The Mandalorian's" Emmy nominations. (Image credit: Disney+)

Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series

Sarah Halley Finn

Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie

Joe Bauer, Richard Bluff, Abbigail Keller, Hickel, Roy K. Cancino, John Knoll, Enrico Damm, John Rosengrant and Joseph Kasparian.

Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (one hour)

Baz Idoine for "Chapter 13: The Jedi."

Outstanding Stunt Coordination

Ryan Watson

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series

Jon Favreau for "Chapter 9: The Marshal."

Outstanding Stunt Performance

Lateef Crowder for "Chapter 16: The Rescue" — he's Pedro Pascal's stuntman, so perhaps it's for the fight sequence with Moff Gideon?

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series

Dylan Firshen and J. Erik Jessen for "Chapter 11: The Heiress."
Andrew S. Eisen for "Chapter 13: The Jedi."
Jeff Seibenick for "Chapter 15: The Believer."
Adam Gerstel for "Chapter 16: The Rescue."

Yes, "The Mandalorian" has four nominations in this single category. Its only opposition is "The Crown" with a comparatively meager two nominations.

Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (half-hour)

Matthew Jensen for "Chapter 15: The Believer."

Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes

Shawna Trpcic, Julie Robar, Sara Fox for "Chapter 13: The Jedi."

Outstanding Period and/or Character Hairstyling

Maria Sandoval, Ashleigh Childers, Wendy Southard "Chapter 16: The Rescue."

A cursory glance over the episodes that have been nominated seems to suggest strong favoritism towards the climax of the second season and while epic episodes like "Chapter 13: The Jedi" have been recognized, others like "Chapter 12: The Siege" have not.

Related: The best sci-fi movies and TV shows to stream on Amazon Prime in July

The only other science fiction show that received any nominations was "Star Trek: Discovery" with a grand total of four.

Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode

Jason Michael Zimmerman, Ante Dekovic, Aleksandra Kochoska, Charles Collyer, Alexander Wood, Ivan Kondrup Jensen, Kristen Prahl, Toni Pykalaniemi and Leslie Chung for the episode "Su'kal" (S03, E11).

Outstanding Period and/or Character Makeup (non-prosthetic)

Faye Crasto for the episode "Terra Firma, Part 2" (S03, E10).

Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup

Glenn Hetrick, Mike Smithson, Michael O'Brien, Ken Culver, Hugo Villasenor and Chris Bridges for the episode "That Hope Is You, Part 1" (S03, E01).

Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (one hour)

Matthew E. Taylor, Sean Heissinger, Tim Farrell, Harry Cohen, Michael Schapiro, Darrin Mann, Clay Weber, Marquis, Alyson Dee Moore and Chris Moriana for the episode "That Hope Is You, Part 1" (S03, E01).

At least Netflix's brilliant original series "Love, Death + Robots" received some critical acclaim. (Image credit: Netflix)

And while much of Season 3 of "Discovery" was either a let-down or a rip-off, the very first episode of the third season, "That Hope Is You, Part 1" (S03, E01) was not only the best episode of "Discovery" we've seen yet, but also worthy of entry into the "Star Trek" Hall of Fame. 

And then there is "The Expanse" with episodes like "Churn" (S05, E02) and "Gaugamela" (S05, E04) — yes, the whole of the fifth season returned to the incredible quality that we saw in the first two seasons, but the first few installments of Season 5 are up there with established, epic episodes of sci-fi including "Battlestar Galactica's" "33" (S01, E01) and "Flight of the Phoenix" (S02, E09) and "Babylon 5's" "Severed Dreams" (S03, E10).

However, Netflix's excellent animated series "Love, Death + Robots" did receive two nominations ... so that's good news.

Outstanding Short Form Animated Program

For the episode "Ice" (S01, E02).

Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (half-hour) and Animation

Brad North, Craig Henighan, Dawn Lunsford, Jeff Charbonneau and Alicia Stevens for the episode "Snow in the Desert" (S02, E04).

The 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast on Sept. 19, 2021.

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Scott Snowden

When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.