INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Reunion Disaster: Angry Cast Demands Pay, Gets Police Called On Them Instead

By Toni Matthews
Published on: 03:05 PST, May 31, 2016

https://youtu.be/eplIqauVT4U

The Sons of Anarchy cast reunion at the Space City Comic Con in Houston, Texas, was supposed to be a fun experience. Instead, it was a total disaster!

Practically everything that could go wrong did. Worst of all, it became painfully obvious that some people, including the stars of Sons of Anarchy, were taken in by an ugly scam.

According to reports by Bleeding Cool and Comicbook.com, the drama began when SoA star Charlie Hunnam and his cast mates arrived at their hotel. When they attempted to pay with the credit card given by the promoter, they were told it wouldn’t be accepted. They would have to pay with cash.

Sensing something was amiss, Hunnam and the others attempted to cash checks the promoter gave as payment at a local bank. That’s when the cast learned the checks were worthless: the promoter scammed them, writing out checks from a previously closed account.

The livid Sons of Anarchy stars headed over to the sponsor’s office, where they demanded answers and their promised payment.

As reported by journalist Ava Jade, “Charlie had it out with the promoter to get to the bottom of it…Many of the actors went to the promoter’s office to demand payment, where the promoter ended up calling the cops because he was ‘being held hostage.'”

Sadly, it only got uglier from there.

Bleeding Cool writes that the SoA panel planned for Friday was canceled. AVI refused to let any Anarchy cast members set foot on stage until they were paid. With the trouble the promoter reportedly went through to avoid this, you can imagine why such drastic actions were taken.

No money was forthcoming, so there was no panel.

Unfortunately, Sons of Anarchy panel attendees weren’t notified ahead of time. With no explanation given, they were greeted by an empty stage. Many spent hundreds, even thousands of dollars to be there, and this is what they saw.

Despite the Sons of Anarchy stars themselves being victims, articles across the web feature titles that seem to portray cast members as responsible for what went wrong. All research for this story suggests this is far from the case.

A Space City Comic Con volunteer named Shelly Montrose had this to say about Hunnam and Perlman.

“Anyone that was there saw me standing beside Charlie Hunnam, I was taking pictures of them with him, knows that he was very giving to fans as well as professional. I feel like I did a good job of keeping the fans calm, entertained, and happy until they got to Charlie Hunnam.

“Ron Perlman was also professional as well. When I left he was still excepting those bogus tickets that people had pre-purchased.”

It seems Perlman was unaware just how many of the SoA faithful’s hopes met Mr. Mayhem.

Montrose spoke of encountering enraged individuals who spent “$800 to $3,000” on prepaid tickets that weren’t honored. She was left with the unpleasant task of explaining they would have to use the convention’s ATMs to take out additional money. It was their only option if they wanted autographs or photo ops.

A few upset attendees created a private Facebook group called “Extremely Angry SOA EXTREME VIP.” As the title suggests, these Sons of Anarchy fans purchased VIP tickets that weren’t honored. It’s for VIP ticket holders only, although they would like to hear from anyone that can help them understand just went wrong.

Drama aside, there appears to be a silver lining for disappointed attendees. Jade learned from “the ladies at @SOAAddicts” that Showclix has started a refund process. Another fan told the journalist they received a refund for a photo but not for their tickets.

Also, despite the badly ruined Sons of Anarchy reunion event, much of the Space City Comic Con weekend went well. Other planned panels experienced little to no issues. There was even some worry that despite the relative success of the overall Houston Comic Con, this particular scandal would negatively impact the image of the Comic Con as a whole.

It’s an understandable concern; when most people think of “Comic Con,” they tend to focus on either San Diego or New York. Clearly, more work must be done by Space City Comic Con organizers to protect the credibility of their event from predatory scam artists. Having such a highly anticipated panel go so wrong just isn’t a good look for the location.

Did you attend the Space City Comic Con? What’s your impression of the Sons of Anarchy reunion disaster? Share your thoughts and any additional information below!

[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]

Share this article: ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Reunion Disaster: Angry Cast Demands Pay, Gets Police Called On Them Instead
sons of anarchy charlie hunnam
More from Inquisitr