The trailer premiered Wednesday afternoon at an early screening in NYC of Sam Heughan’s new movie, The Spy Who Dumped Me. Sam showed up for a quick Q&A, and they showed this teaser as a bonus surprise. Go watch it again. Have you let it all sink in yet? You good? Great.
Because now it’s time to WIG OUT ABOUT IT.
Wigging Outlander: The Season 4 Teaser Trailer Edition
We here at That’s Normal have been coining the good marketing phrases of the Outlander fandom since way back. We gave you Hangoutlander™, Hooked on Fergus™, Kiltboner™, My Pique Challenge™ and many more, and today we are coining another classic: Wigging Outlander™ (all rights reserved).
Wigging Outlander is a complex fandom event in which fans are simultaneously elated by the dissemination of news and despondent over the content of that news (which may or may not contain lamentations over wigs). Wigging Outlander is the state that the fandom finds itself in anytime something new comes out, and YOU DON’T LIKE IT but it’s all you can talk about at the same time. No one is entitled to Wig Outlander in the same way; your mileage may vary. And no one should feel that to properly partake in Wigging Outlander that they have to adopt everyone’s Pique Challenge. Wig Outlander your own way.
When this trailer released, there were multiple reactions, several disparate strains of Wigging Outlander. And I have broken them all down for you. Scientifically.
The Faints
The most obvious way of Wigging Outlander is to absolutely lose your collective shit over everything you see. To flat out faint at every new Jamie gif now made possible by 47 seconds of new scenes. To love every moment, every line, every song choice, every scene change, every cast member. Thankfully, for Starz, this section of the Outlander fandom population is loud and proud. Their proclivity to faint in the face of every new tidbit does not hinder their ability to fangirl.
The Fraughts
No matter what the news, if your Wigging Outlander contains anything that resembles a bar graph on how much screen time or Twitter characters were given to Sam versus Cait, then your reaction is fraught. These fans feel a certain ownership not just of the show and the characters, but of HOW the show is presented to the world, how that presentation personally affects them, and how that effect makes them feel. Tangentially: The Fraughts are also really concerned with how much or how little the marketing department seems to care about certain sections of fans. They have pie charts.
The Flails
These fans have zero chill. They are the ones at every event, no matter the amount of time since it was announced, no matter how small the lottery, no matter what continent it’s on. The Flails are everywhere, at any time. They are the ones who somehow have personal photos with David Berry from each and every time he’s been on the Northern Hemisphere since his casting announcement. These fans were definitely IN THE ROOM at The Spy Who Dumped Me premiere, and they probably stole a lock of Leanne from ET’s hair.
The Forgotten
Fans that like Outlander but forgot to watch past episode 4 of season 3 are suddenly and violently reminded by their social media feeds that it exists and that more of it is coming soon. They don’t really know what to do with this information other than to file it away in the same junk drawer in their brain where they put The Fiery Cross.
The Fairs
Similar to The Fraughts, The Fairs cannot abide injustice. But not for themselves and their own consumption, but for the rights and liberties of the oh-so-put-upon cast. How dare Starz spend time, effort and tweets supporting Sam’s movie (that’s made by the same studio, but whatever, that’s not important) when we saw NONE of the same boosting of the last movie Cait had 4th billing in. Appalled would be The Fairs constant state of fandom. Simply appalled.
The Fairs are also similarly concerned with how little (or none) we’ve seen of Bree and Roger, Fergus and Marsali, etc considering that THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO SHIP THEM TOO YANNO, and TO BE HONEST WE WOULD ALL JUST APPRECIATE AN ENTIRE SPIN OFF SHOW DEVOTED TO OUR FAVES, I mean, SCREW JAMIE AND CLAIRE THEY ARE PROBLEMATIC AF AND MARSALI IS PURE. 
The Fashuns
The fans who screenshot every kerchief, waistcoat, belt and buckle to make a season 4 costume before the next Creation Ent Con (that !surprise! no one will attend). Then they inundate Terry Dresbach’s twitter feed with laud and praise and talk of stomachers because being truly seen by someone is a rare gift in this world. Embrace it.
The Freaks
While an all-encompassing moniker, we all know the true freaks in the fandom when we see them. Their feeds are total nonsense. Their lives are complete enigmas. Their hobbies are actual profiling points that the FBI uses to hunt for serial killers. 
The Fringe
And I don’t mean the outsiders. These are the fans that are truly Wigging Outlander. These are the ones that absolutely cannot contain how they feel … ABOUT THE WIGS.
Me. I mean me.
It doesn’t matter what great little shot I’m seeing of James Alexander Mackenzie Malcolm Fraser if my eyes are being assaulted by some janky bangs he has to try to smolder through. I can’t be impressed with Cait’s chin acting if my eye keeps being drawn to the negative space between her brow and her hairline. I’m thinking of drawing up the first edition of STOP WIGGING OUTLANDER, A PETITION, signed by me. Subheading: Just let Jamie have short hair. 
Woof.
The Few
Those fans who have been living and breathing and covering Outlander since the show was first announced (ahem), and who love it, but also really REALLY love their breaks from the constant fandom meltdowns and press releases. Those fans who were up all night categorizing the different factions of fandom with alliterated headings just so you guys could laugh a bit. The ones who are announcing at the end of this post their six week long book club for Drums of Autumn. The weary are also Wigging Outlander.
The Return of In the Waterweeds
Thanks to the season 4 promo and the promise that Outlander WILL be back in November 2018, we can finally announce the return of our book Hangoutlanders: In the Waterweeds. Starting August 20th, we will get together LIVE on YouTube to discuss Prologue, Part I and Part II of Drums of Autumn in preparation for the show’s season 4 premiere. Every other week until November, we will meet to discuss the book IN DETAIL, and it’s always a great time because some of us haven’t read the book, some of us have read them all, and some of us can’t remember what we’ve read. We hope you’ll mark your calendars and join us here!
