‘Outlander’ season 3: More to unwrap after premiere news

There’s obviously one bad thing about the news that “Outlander” is not premiering until September: The show’s not premiering until September! That’s a long time to wait for anything, and as a result of that, we’re certainly going to have some moments come this summer especially where the Droughtlander is really taking its toll. (We may need pizza to make us feel better.)

Yet, there are positives — the show’s not airing against “Game of Thrones,” and there’s finally a time period to frame our discussions. There’s no more wondering when the show’s coming back, how it’s coming back, or whether or not it could alter something else on the Starz schedule. One of the biggest winners of this whole scheduling decision is the network, given that this allows them to have a tentpole series later this year. If “American Gods” becomes a big hit, then they have spring, summer, and full covered in ways that they did not before. They can also pair some of these hour-long series up with comedies. (As for whether or not this should be a yearly tradition, we’ll get to that in a moment.)

With this premiere month in mind, we can also start to speculate on a few other things.

Likely teaser / trailer releases – We still think it’s possible Starz gives us a teaser at some point during the “American Gods” run, though “Power” this summer is its highest-rated show so airing something there would be a good way to give both shows even more attention. The trailer will probably come out this summer, maybe in July or August to lead up to the premiere.

Awards consideration – We discussed this briefly yesterday, but let’s offer up some further context here. The Emmy cut-off date is typically the end of May, so clearly the show won’t be eligible this year. It may not even air before the Emmys do this year! However, the season will be eligible for the Emmys in 2018, and it is coming out in plenty of time for both the Golden Globes and to try and take home some more hardware at the People’s Choice Awards. (Just saying those words conjure up some angry feelings that we had over the show’s victories not even being mentioned during the broadcast.)

Here’s a quick teaser for an upcoming article (don’t have the publication date yet, but should be over the next few days) — “Outlander” season 3 and awards-show metrics.

What does this mean for season 4? – Effectively, nothing. The show’s future, including if it will premiere in the fall of 2018, depends largely on the scope of production and when they choose to start filming. Given how many times expectations changed for when season 3 could be done or when it would premiere, we’ve learned that it’s foolish to start circling any dates as of yet. We do think the spring / summer / fall schedule that we mentioned earlier in this piece would be a great thing for Starz, but don’t force season 4 into a rushed schedule just because you want to meet that.

No matter when “Outlander” premieres, you likely know at this point that we’re going to be here covering it every step of the way. The link here is where to go for the latest scoop, and you can share your thoughts in the comment below! (Photo: Starz.)