Caitriona Balfe excited to get to work on Outlander season 7

Outlander season 6 is set to premiere early next year, thus putting an end to the almost two-year Droughtlander that has been ailing our souls. The excitement level is well past 11, with the teasers and little sneak peeks are barely doing the job of holding us over for the next three months.

And some fans are thinking even beyond that. Speaking with Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast, Caitriona Balfe (Claire Fraser) revealed they are already getting ready for season 7, and it’s going to be one heck of shoot.

“At 3.30 this morning when I was feeding my son, I got an email with the first two scripts and I started reading the first episode, then my eyes were getting crossed so I’ll have to look at that another time!” Balfe said. “The first two eps are in my inbox so it’s exciting, we’re gearing up to get back on it. It’ll be a tough one, we’ll be shooting for a whole year. So in the words of Dougal McKenzie, we’re going to gird our loins.”

One whole year?! I know the Droughtlander is about to end, but I’m already dreading the next one.

How Outlander season 7 will be different

The reason why season 7 will take so long to film is that it is going to be super-sized, with a total of 16 episodes. This is to make up for the fact that season 6 only has eight episodes due to pandemic-era filming restrictions.

If you’re an avid reader of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels, then you know that season 7 will be based on the seventh book in the series, Echo in the Bone. Of course, the series sometimes skips ahead or changes things, so we don’t know at exactly what point in the books season 6 will end.

Gabaldon’s website has a good synopsis for Echo in the Bone to give you an idea of what’s coming:

"The seventh—but NOT the last!—novel in the OUTLANDER series, An Echo In The Bone, has four main storylines:Jamie and Claire Fraser, are now in the midst of the American RevolutionTheir daughter Brianna, her husband Roger MacKenzie, and their two children settled at Lallybroch in the 1970′s (finding their feet after their return from the past—but are unaware that that past is just about to leap out at them again)Lord John Grey and his step-son William (Jamie’s unacknowledged illegitimate son), are embroiled in the Revolution on the British side with William in the army and Lord John on the clandestine side of intelligenceJamie’s nephew Young Ian: his troubled love-life is about to take another sharp left turn."

There’s a lot of ground to cover after the tragic events of season 5, which will reverberate through not only the upcoming season but the one to follow. Stay tuned to see how it plays out when Outlander returns on March 6, 2022, on Starz.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime, and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels

h/t Hello!