You could throw a visual-effects nomination The Avengers’ way, maybe, or give Guardians of the Galaxy a run for its screenplay, but the big races? The Academy was too finicky, too highbrow, too removed to stump for a superhero movie in a major way.
Following Black Panther’s historic Oscar wins in 2019, the MCU now looks primed to crash 2021’s top Emmy races with WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, its first two Disney+ series, joining the fray.
For Nate Moore, executive-producer on Panther as well as Falcon, this marks a shift of cultural relevance—making work that, while still providing escapism, explores timely issues with greater richness than a simple line of dialogue or good-versus-evil construct.
The studio had even waded into the streaming era previously, with a slate of buzzy Netflix originals that included Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.
“Whether or not we got it right is not for us to say, but the intent was to investigate and interrogate what means to be Black in America—and what is more American than holding the mantle of Captain America?” says Moore, referencing the story line leading to Sam wielding the famous shield.
In a very un-studio-movie kind of way, that dialogue allowed Spellman and company to freely navigate some thorny thematic terrain.
Spellman, ever the TV veteran , would respond by asking about “the conversation” that leads to it.
Falcon’s season one story will likely continue in a new Captain America film, and from there, the show will likely return for a new season.
To oscillate between popcorn and prestige requires exactly what Marvel has: a wealth of creative resources and source material, an insatiable demand for their content, and a track record so bulletproof that the lane for risk-taking seems ever-widening.
Livanos helped assemble WandaVision’s writers room, which is led by Black Widow cowriter Jac Schaeffer, and saw it through postproduction.
Livanos says assembling the writers room was about looking for “kind, empathetic individuals who cared so deeply about Wanda Maximoff and her emotional journey, and doing the character real justice.” Indeed, “the core of the story is what has really propelled ” to the Emmy buzz now surrounding it, she argues.
Much of this has to do with the splintering of television audiences, and the sheer amount of content and platforms we all wade through now; the biggest stuff tends to plow through by virtue of merely having enough eyeballs on them.
Disney+’s The Mandalorian earned a shocker of a drama-series nomination for its first season last year, before becoming more of a critical darling for its recent sophomore run.
Back in his 2017 Vanity Fair interview, Feige was clearly proud of the good reviews many of his films had received, highlighting the “Certified Fresh” plaques that Rotten Tomatoes would send Marvel.
Portraits: Gillian Anderson, Hugh Grant, Jurnee Smollett, and More— Are the Daytime Emmy Nominations Even Weirder Than Usual?— Kate Winslet Has Now Entered the Most Thrilling Actress Race at the Emmys— From the Archive: Who Stole the 2000 Oscar Statuettes?— Sign up for the “HWD Daily” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage—plus a special weekly edition of Awards Insider.
Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers.