The Outlander convention conundrum: Why cancellations happen

Over the course of the past few months we’ve heard from a good many people expressing various disagreements about Outlander stars being forced to cancel various conventions. Do we hear it about other shows occasionally? Sure, but it seems to be more frequent with the Starz series — but that may also be, in part, due to the sheer number of cancellations that does transpire.

Dealing with all of this can be a frustrating experience for fans, especially those who do book flight and travel plans weeks in advance in order to ensure that they meet their favorites. Yet, it can also be just as frustrating for the talent involved.

A great example of that comes via Sam Heughan, who had to cancel his appearance at the official convention in New Jersey this weekend due to his commitments for Bloodshot down in South Africa. As he explained on Twitter, back when he agreed to do the convention he hadn’t booked the role in the new movie just yet, and of course he, like so many other co-stars, wanted to be in attendance. These conventions are a great way to give back to fans and establish community — there is a financial incentive for many to take part, but it’s not just solely about that. The build memories and unexpected friendships.

However, the thing to remember with just about any convention is that they are all subject to change. If you buy a ticket to a convention and make travel plans, do so with the understanding that you may not get entirely what you signed up for. It’s almost better to not put all your metaphorical eggs in one basket when it comes to meeting an individual performer. Things happen and plans change. Both Heughan and Caitriona Balfe have been forced to cancel conventions over the past few weeks, and the reality is that few actors would ever sign on to attend these if it was to impede with other movie or TV roles. Both parties tried to accommodate their filming schedules around it, but at some point nothing can be done.

Let’s frame things this way: At the start of signing on to do a film, you can start to arrange the schedule in a way that benefits you the best — or at least ask for days that you would like to be doing other things. It’s like getting a new job and asking for time off. They can try to accommodate you, but sometimes things change and they have to rescind time off. If they don’t it could cause other problems for them. Therefore, you have to end up canceling a previous commitment and disappointing many people. Plans on production can change mere days beforehand.

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While we understand there are people sad about the New Jersey cancellation and the changes at Wizard World next week (see the video below for more), we know that the parties involved are equally disappointed. They recognize that fan support has got them where they are and they don’t want anyone to feel let down. We just hope that those who are able to make the conventions have a great time — while the Las Vegas convention didn’t have Sam, for example, we heard many great things about it from everyone involved. The organizers often do a great job trying to compensate for someone being unable to attend.

Related – Be sure to get some more discussion about the season 4 schedule

As always, we welcome your thoughts on this story below. Meanwhile, remember that you can like CarterMatt on Facebook in the event you want some other information regarding the Starz series. (Photo: Starz.)