Marvel will submit Loki as a drama series, not a limited one, at Emmys

For too long the limited series category at the Emmys has been an affront to people who like clear, honest delineations in award ceremonies. The qualifications for such an Emmy have, for the last two decades, consisted of anthology series and shows that haven’t announced a second season yet.

Well, Disney is saying no more (or something). Actually, they shot themselves in the foot with some early hyping of Loki season two. Per Variety, Disney plans on submitting Loki as a drama series, not a limited series, for next year’s Emmys. Apparently, the company blew their chance at committing category fraud by sticking “Loki will return in season 2" in one of their post-credit stingers. Whoopsie doodles.

The limited series category at the Emmys is a complicated one. For example, two weeks after HBO’s Big Little Lies received a slew of Emmy nods as a limited series, HBO decided that maybe they should do a second season of their wildly popular series. What a coincidence. Meanwhile, FX submitted the first three seasons of Fargo, an anthology series, as a limited series. The same is true for American Crime Story, which won twice.

“The program must tell a complete, non-recurring story, and not have an ongoing storyline or main characters in subsequent seasons,” reads the Television Academy rules and regulations. This means that even though American Crime Story all takes place in the same United States in the same decade, they’re technically different shows because David Schwimmer’s Robert Kardashian never popped up on Impeachment, which fine. Whatever, this isn’t a very good system.

The point is. Networks have used the category as a means of sneaking in some Emmy wins while not having to compete against the network’s other shows. HBO doesn’t want Big Little Lies competing against Westworld—even though HBO pushed Westworld into the limited series realm after the show lost to The Handmaid’s Tale in 2017. The subsequent two seasons were submitted as limited series.

Still, if these networks are going to try to eke a couple of votes out, they should at least be forced to put their multi-million dollar franchise investment up against Succession. Or, at the very least, the Emmys should change the name of the category. To clarify: Angels In America was a limited series; John Adams was a limited series; the fourth season of Fargo is the fourth season of a long-running television show.