Several months after leaving the starring role of Rick Grimes in AMC’s The Walking Dead, Andrew Lincoln has been praised by co-star Chandler Riggs, who said the now-46-year-old actor “deserved way more recognition than he got” in an interview with TooFab.
Despite Lincoln’s 2014 victory in the category of Favorite Anti-Hero at the People’s Choice Awards, two Saturn Awards for Best Actor on Television won in 2015 and 2017 and inclusion in The Walking Dead’s 2012 Satellite Award for Best Ensemble, he never received so much as a nomination for one of the coveted Emmy or Golden Globe awards. This evidently didn’t sit well with Riggs. “It’s really unfortunate to see the academy lean towards other shows and other things,” said the young actor, best known for the role of Carl Grimes.
Other awards received by The Walking Dead include Top Television Series at the ASCAP Awards each year from 2012 to 2017, Television Actor of the Year at the 2010 and 2012 AFI Awards, a 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Screenplay and Most Bingeworthy Show at the 2015 Critics’ Choice Television Awards.
These comments came shortly after a series of tweets in which Riggs criticized these awards for never having graced The Walking Dead. “The fact that Andy (Rick) never even got as much as a nomination for an Emmy or a golden globe shows you how flawed the academy is in this industry,” he said.
Though he later clarified that he didn’t wish to downplay the victors’ accomplishments, saying:
“Just to clarify, I’m not taking away from people who have been nominated for these awards – the majority of them are well deserved. just really unfortunate that these incredibly hard-working actors can’t get the recognition they deserve for working at a cultural-phenomenon level.”
Lincoln himself has stated he doesn’t intend to return to the AMC series but will be back in the role of Rick Grimes in a trilogy of movies. Meanwhile, the zombie drama has recently begun its tenth season, with a renewal for an eleventh announced by showrunner Angela Kang on the fifth of this month at New York Comic Con.