The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards kicked off on September 14 with Nate Bargatze on board as host with a plan for keeping the acceptance speeches short, and I was rooting for plenty of the people in the running from the full list of 2025 Emmy nominations. As CinemaBlend's Emmy's live blog continued, my fingers were crossed especially hard for Andor to get some wins in the primetime broadcast.
While the Star Wars show missed out on winning Outstanding Drama Series, showrunner Tony Gilroy did get the trophy for Outstanding Writing, and the episode that clinched him the win makes me mad all over again that Genevieve O'Reilly was snubbed for what I consider her award-worthy performance.
Andor's Big Primetime Emmys Win
Andor's Tony Gilroy won Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for "Welcome to the Rebellion," the game-changing ninth episode of Season 2. He was up against Severance's Dan Erickson, Slow Horses' Will Smith (who is not that Will Smith), The White Lotus' Mike White, The Pitt's R. Scott Gemmill, and The Pitt's Joe Sachs. That was some stiff competition, with no guarantee that Gilroy would come out on top until the big announcement.
The acclaimed Star Wars show was also nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, but lost out to The Pitt. Season 2 accumulated some wins at the Creative Arts Emmys, however, in the categories of Outstanding Production Design, Outstanding Picture Editing, Outstanding Special Visual Effects, Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes.
So, there's plenty to celebrate even if Andor didn't beat out The Pitt for Outstanding Drama, and leading man Diego Luna had a refreshing take on not being nominated for playing Cassian Andor. But a cast member who really made Andor Season 2 her own was Genevieve O'Riley, and "Welcome to the Rebellion" getting the writing win makes her snub sting afresh.
Genevieve O'Reilly Deserved A Nomination
Season 2 of Andor delivered some of the very best content set in the galaxy far, far away in the history of the franchise, as far as I'm concerned, and I had high expectations going in after how excellent the first season was. But I wasn't prepared for how much Genevieve O'Reilly was going to hook me into Mon Mothma's story this time around.
She was an absolute standout of the season, going back to the unforgettable drunken dance sequence that might have come across as silly in the hands of a less talented actress. The climax of her Andor arc really happened in "Welcome to the Rebellion," with her powerful speech to the Galactic Senate before fleeing the life she'd known.
Just take a look, and tell me that this sequence from the Emmy-winning episode wasn't worth some Emmy love for O'Reilly:
Now, I can be reasonable. I'm not saying that Genevieve O'Reilly needed to win the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress, which was ultimately won by Katherine LaNasa for her work on The Pitt. (Other nominees were Patricia Arquette for Severance, Carrie Coon for The White Lotus, Julianne Nicholson for Paradise, Parker Posey for The White Lotus, Natasha Rothwell for The White Lotus, and Aimee Lou Wood for The White Lotus.)
Why couldn't O'Reilly have at least been among the actresses who were honored by a nomination? No hate to any of the nominees, but it just hurt to see The White Lotus scoop up three nominations while O'Reilly didn't get one. Since Season 2 was the end of Andor, this was O'Reilly's last chance to get some Emmy love for her work as Mon Mothma for arguably Star Wars' most acclaimed series. Even if she reprises the role for Ahsoka Season 2, Ahsoka was certainly not the critical hit in Season 1 that Andor was.
I hope that Genevieve O'Reilly can at least take it as a compliment that Andor's Primetime Emmy win was for an episode that showcased her character so much, and I have to congratulate Tony Gilroy on taking home a prestigious trophy for a science-fiction franchise. Genre series aren't usually big winners at major awards shows, after all, and Andor earned it.
If you want to revisit the Emmy-winning episode of Andor, you can find the series streaming with a Disney+ subscription now.
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