Unfairly Silenced Fantasy Series Secures Best Acting Nomination

By Jennifer Asencio
| Published 17 seconds ago

The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin is a tour de force that was created by Jeremy Boreing and Daily Wire Plus based on the books by Stephen Lawhead. It ran across some controversy when no critics would give it an honest viewing, resulting in no Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score, but viewers awarded it an 88% on the site. Oscar-winning screenwriter Roger Avary praised the show on The Joe Rogan Experience as being much better than competition like Rings of Power or the Game of Thrones spin-offs.

Now, it seems that praise has been validated. Actor Colin Cunningham, who played King Vortigern in episode 3, “A Fatherless Child,” has been nominated for a British Columbian Leo Award for Best Lead Performance in a Dramatic Series. The Leo Awards are like a British Columbian version of the Golden Globes, honoring both movies and television for excellence in Canadian broadcasting arts. Cunningham was born in Los Angeles but has been a staple of many Canadian-made television shows, which made him eligible for this honor in ways the rest of the cast was not.

Colin Cunningham’s Award-Nominated Performance

Cunningham’s resume includes turns on Stargate SG-1, DaVinci’s Inquest, and Falling Skies, all of which have Canadian roots. He also had a major role in the short-lived comic book adaptation Preacher. He only appeared in one episode of The Pendragon Cycle, but it was one of the most significant episodes of the show, and King Vortigern was at the center of it.

In the episode, Saxon invaders are overtaking Briton, and various tribal kings are drawing lines that favor either Briton or allying with the invaders. Vortigern has appointed himself High King of Briton and is fortifying himself against the invaders, but his advisors are giving him bad counsel, and he himself is a tyrant. After executing one of his advisors, he demands Merlin’s wisdom, but the young wizard refuses to serve a despot, allying instead with the Pendragon brothers, Aurellius and Uther.

There is a lot of dramatic tension in the Vortigern character as he struggles with his errors and sees his entire world fall in shambles around him. Episode 3 is also the beginning of Merlin’s tale, carrying with it a lot of mystery and magic as the future advisor of Arthur copes with his own trauma and returns to the world of Men from a self-imposed exile.

The clash between these two repentant personalities ends both tragically and with a spark of new hope as Merlin bridges the gap between the Briton of before and the future Briton under the Pendragon family; Vortigern is the king of all that is old and traditional, and Colin Cunningham carries his weighty crown with a regal determination to do what is right at all costs and regardless of consequences.

The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin is an excellent show that is still awaiting its due credit, but the nomination of Colin Cunningham for a Leo Award has finally broken another, more sinister cycle by acknowledging that the show exists and has merit. Good luck to King Vortigern on his nomination, and may he have better luck being crowned Best Lead Actor than he did High King of Briton!