Crown Media
Team Nathan fans were livid after The Hallmark Channel posted a status update on its “When Calls the Heart” Facebook page asking Team Nathan fans if they were “worried” back in Episode 1. Although the post was likely meant to be kindhearted and provoke discussion, many Team Nathan fans said they felt mocked. Others thought it pointed to Team Nathan once being endgame, despite the show’s creator saying that was never the case. Hallmark ended up deleting the post and then deleted screenshots of the post that were shared in comments on other status updates.
Fans Felt Mocked by This Team Nathan Post
Some Team Nathan fans said they felt mocked after they saw the post. Here’s a screenshot that is circulating on social media. Although people were sharing the screenshot in response to earlier posts on the “When Calls the Heart” Facebook page, Hallmark admins were deleting those screenshots too.
The post read: “Nathan was not shy about pursuing Elizabeth this past season. #TeamNathan, were you worried when she canceled their dinner at the end of the first episode?”
Since Elizabeth ended up choosing Lucas over Nathan, some fans felt like this post was mocking their hope that she would choose Nathan in the end. For most of the season, Elizabeth went back and forth between Nathan and Lucas. Although she was dating Lucas for most of the season, she did have some moments when she looked longingly at Nathan. When he first declared his love to her, Elizabeth rode away after telling him it would hurt too much to be with him and lose him, rather than saying she didn’t love him back. After she finally chose Lucas, many Team Nathan fans are still angry and dealing with the fallout.
They were so unhappy about the post that The Hallmark Channel ended up deleting it from their official When Calls the Heart Facebook page. But fans still are leaving comments letting them know how angry they feel that the post was shared at all. And Hallmark appears to be deleting any comments that include screenshots of the original post. Heavy noted some comments with screenshots that are now gone, and fans have noticed it too.
One fan wrote on the official Facebook page about the now-deleted post: “Wow, I guess the writers of these posts actually do read the comments because they just deleted their most recent one because of the insensitivity of it to Team Nathan fans! I am glad to see that they are paying attention!!”
However, not everyone who replied felt the same. One person jokingly responded: “It’s almost as if they were trying to get team Nathan fans worked up. But hallmark would never do that, right?! We must be misreading what they meant by their (deleted) post, just like misread the whole Nathan and Elizabeth storyline.”
Another fan wrote: “They got rid of it when 250 of the 267 of the comments were not favorable. PR Dept really not on the ball. Maybe they thought they would take the temperature of the former fans of the show to see if things had calmed down from the ‘eh’ story they wrote instead of the epic love story this should have been…”
Others said the post wasn’t made by accident, but the real question was why it was deleted. One fan wrote, in part: “My guess, and it’s only a guess and probably not correct, is they saw the number of comments asking them why they would be asking this now and how many commenters were sounding upset by having to revisit the Nathan/Lucas and Elizabeth storyline when it was just beginning to calm down.”
One fan said: “This makes no sense if so, other than to proverbially rub more salt in the wound of the Nathan fans.”
Not everyone was angry thought. On Twitter, one person said that the post wasn’t a smart idea, but they are happy that Hallmark listened to fans and removed the post.
Maaaaaaybe it wasn’t a smart idea to post this, but I’m happy @hallmarkchannel listened and removed the post. How about you (@hallmarkchannel) post something positive for Nathan? Especially on Mountie Monday? Just an idea. He hasn’t had much positivity from you lately.
Some Fans Still Believe Nathan Was Once Endgame, Despite the Creator Saying This Isn’t True
Some fans think this deleted post proves that Hallmark had originally intended for Nathan to be endgame, even though the creator has said that isn’t true.
One person wrote: “Almost sounds like it was a scheduled post they forgot to take out of the cue…back when Nathan was end game. Flipped script indeed.”
Another person wrote: “Don’t you just love automatic posts Hallmark forgot to take down since we all KNEW NATHAN was supposed to be Elizabeth’s choice in the finale!! This post from When Calls the Heart proves it since they’re asking if we got worried after the first episode now that Nathan was Elizabeth’s choice in the end…that’s what I get from this, otherwise why did you remove it?”
Brian Bird, creator of the series, has said multiple times on social media that the script was never flipped and they always knew Lucas would be endgame.
Bird replied to one tweet, writing: “That is just not true. There were no last-minute changes. The outcome was decided months earlier. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Trolls are unreliable and thrive on chaos and misinformation.”
Bird added that they had chosen Lucas a long time ago, and the only thing that evolved was exactly how it would play out. He said any rumors to the contrary about last-minute changes were wrong.
In another tweet, he said the same:
Well, it was the last episode filmed during production because it was… the last episode of the season. But outcome was decided made months earlier.
Hallmark’s Next Post Misspelled the WCTH Author’s Name
In an attempt to make things right with fans, Hallmark tried a different post, but that one backfired when the author’s name was misspelled. The author’s name is “Janette Oke” but the post spelled it “Jeanette Oake.”
The Facebook page later corrected the error, but not before some fans noticed.
