Emmys: 5 reasons why Elizabeth Debicki will win for ‘The Crown’s’ final season

When the Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced on July 17, Netflix’s long running hit series “The Crown” racked up 18 bids total for its sixth and final season. This is a major improvement from last year when it only managed to earn six citations for its fifth season, after being the 2021 Best Drama Series winner for its fourth season.

While the regal series likely faces an uphill battle in some of this year’s major categories, it is all but guaranteed to win one major award come Emmy night: Best Drama Supporting Actress. It’s pretty obvious at this point, but for those who don’t know it already, here are five reasons why Elizabeth Debicki will win the Emmy for “The Crown’s” final season.

1. She has the physical transformation into a real-life person.
In “The Crown,” Debicki physically transforms into the iconic Diana, Princess of Wales. She completely disappears into the role to the point where you forget you’re watching an actress, and that’s because of how she captures her physicality, accent and mannerisms. There is no one who loves that more than other actors, and they’re the only ones that’ll be voting for the winner. Given how this has helped other supporting performances from the series win, such as John Lithgow as Winston Churchill and Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, Debicki will easily be a beneficiary of this as well.

2. She swept the winter precursors.
Debicki overcame some tough competition to win the most recent winter precursor awards. At the Golden Globes, Meryl Streep (“Only Murders In the Building”) led the combined odds in Best TV Supporting Actress, where all genres of television are combined, but it was Debicki who emerged as the winner. She prevailed a week later at the Critics Choice Awards in the Best Drama Supporting race. However, the biggest hurdle she overcame this past winter was in the TV Drama Actress category at the SAG Awards, where the individual acting categories combine both lead and supporting performances. Sarah Snook was a near unanimous favorite to continue her winning streak for the final season of “Succession,” but Debicki won once again to the surprise of many (most notably her). This puts her in the same position as Gillian Anderson three years ago when she swept the same categories for a supporting role in “The Crown,” making her path to the Emmy very smooth.

3. She gets an episode all to herself.
Debicki chose “Dis-Moi Oui” as her episode submission. While episode submissions don’t matter as much since the tape system was discontinued, it was still a great move on her part given she is the central focus of the whole episode. The entry chronicles the final days of Princess Diana’s life, and it depicts her struggles with her post Royal Family lifestyle. The constant hounding by her fans and the paparazzi really brings out the most emotional side of Diana that we see in the series since her divorce from Prince Charles (Dominic West). The episode is a brilliant acting showcase for Debicki, and that will definitely be a factor in her winning.

4. It’ll be a way for the TV academy to officially award the role of Princess Diana.
Since “The Crown” first premiered in 2016, many of the prominent figures of the Royal Family have been recognized with an Emmy win. Both Claire Foy and Olivia Colman have been awarded for their portrayals of Queen Elizabeth II, and Tobias Menzies and Josh O’Connor have been recognized for their performances as Prince Phillip and Prince Charles, respectively. However, Princess Diana, arguably the most iconic member of the family, has yet to garner a win for an actor’s portrayal of her on the show. Emma Corrin was the odds-on favorite to win back in 2021 for her performance as the iconic Princess of Wales, but ended up losing to her co-star Colman. However, in hindsight that might’ve been a good thing for Debicki’s chances, because instead of a scenario where the TV academy has felt they’ve already taken care of awarding someone for playing Princess Diana, they now have their chance to officially give an actor a first win for the series.

5. There’s no one who can challenge her.
The category could not have lined up better in Debicki’s favor. Christine Baranski is a previous Emmy winner for her performance in “Cybill” in 1995, and has since received a total of 16 nominations. She’s clearly well liked amongst her acting peers. However, her performance and her show “The Gilded Age” hasn’t generated that much buzz that would make her a serious contender to win. Four actresses from “The Morning Show” were nominated in this category (Nicole Beharie, Greta Lee, Karen Pittman, Holland Taylor), but since there isn’t one that has been touted as the obvious stand out, vote-splitting could be a possibility. Finally, there’s Debicki’s co-star Lesley Manville, nominated for her portrayal of Princess Margaret. While she’s wonderful in the role, and gets an episode dedicated to her (“Ritz”), as a whole her performance isn’t as juicy or as front and center as Debicki’s is, making the choice between the both of them pretty easy. This leaves Debicki in a prime position to prevail on Emmy night.

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