Why the wait for Outlander season 5, 6 renewals? Here are three reasons

We know that there is an Outlander season 5 renewal coming, and to go along with that signs point towards an Outlander season 6, as well. We don’t want anyone to start pressing the panic button thinking that this super-long wait for news on new episodes means in the slightest that we’re not getting any more of the show following season 4 a little bit later this year.

What we want to do within this article instead is explain what are three reasons why there is such a long wait going on, in addition to when it could be resolved.

1. Lawyers – That may sound super-generic but it’s true — lawyers have a tendency to make everything slow down to a crawl. It makes sense, though, given that there are so many things to negotiate when it comes to the producers, the studio over at Sony, the crew, and of course Starz. You have to shore up things like the shooting schedule, the episode count, salaries, budget, and a number of other intricacies that we’re not privy to on the outside. You want to make sure that something is done right so you don’t have to do it again; if this is a two-season renewal (which it seems as though it will be at this point), these things take even more time than normal since you have to project fairly far ahead into the future.

Think in terms of a lot of lawyers sitting around and talking about various issues. This is really not an exciting process.

2. Timing – Even when you get things sorted out, you do still want to plan out the right time in which to announce the renewal. This week would actually be pretty good, given that there’s a little less going on in the way of TV highlights. We’re not sure it would get the publicity it deserves, however, if it’s announced during either the Olympics or leading up to the Oscars. You want to strike when you can get the most outlets talking.

Related – Check out some other stories you may have missed via our Outlander Weekly Roundup

3. Urgency – Maybe if there’s no renewal by April we’ll say this is different, but there’s still not a reason to rush things along with this. There’s still plenty of time for the writers to plan ahead for a fifth season, and right now Starz in general has a lot on their plate. They’ve been putting a lot of energy as of late into resolving the Optimum dispute, something that is keeping their total audience reach down for the time being. We do foresee this being resolved well before Outlander returns but this is already one of the testier stand-offs involving the TV industry in recent memory.

Trust us that once a renewal is official, we’ll have news on that as soon as we can.

Want to get some other news when it comes to Outlander? Then we suggest that you like CarterMatt on Facebook. (Photo: Starz.)