Outlander star John Bell teases “ominous” season 6

It’s no secret that the upcoming season of Outlander is going to be dark. We’ve heard about it over the past few months from the show’s stars. Now, John Bell (Young Ian) is singing the same tune.

Bell spoke with Digital Spy about the “ominous” feel of Outlander season 6. Young Ian returned to the series in season 5 after opting to live with the Mohawk. This character’s journey has been very tumultuous as he followed his dear uncle Jamie (Sam Heughan) from Europe to North America. He’s very far from his home of Lallybroch.

It’s almost as if that was another life, and now Young Ian is trying to figure out how to continue moving forward as the American Revolutionary War approaches. There could also be a love story brewing for him in season 6 with the arrival of one Malva Christie (Jessica Reynolds).

Clearly, a lot is on the horizon for Young Ian, and Bell is dishing all about it!

John Bell hints at dark times ahead on Outlander

Bell’s career has been very interesting. Along with Outlander, he’s starred in two of The Hobbit films, T2: Trainspotting, and had his first role in Doctor Who  (in the season 3 episode “Utopia”) at the age of eight. And now, the 24-year-old actor is going to be taking the stage in London for a one-man play called The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me. The story follows a gay man’s journey towards self-discovery at the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

Bell is impressive to say the least, and I’d dare say this is just the start of amazing things to come, including Young Ian’s story in season 6.

Of course, Bell couldn’t give out many specifics about the upcoming season, but he did say that he is “very excited” and that we are going to be learning “a lot more about him.” Since Ian has been introduced, we’ve only seen him in snippets, but that’s about to change.

One of the things that we have not seen about Young Ian’s life is what happened during his time with the Mohawk. All we know is that he decided to stay with them and then returned at some point. “In season five, what happened to him was hinted at,” said Bell. “There is a lot of mystique about Ian’s life away from the Ridge and if you haven’t read the books and don’t know what is happening, season six certainly delves into Ian’s character more so I have a lot to play with.”

But bringing that aspect of Ian’s life to the screen was easier said than done. Outlander season 6 filmed during the pandemic, and there were a lot of precautions in place. Production schedules were very strict, and interaction with other costars was kept to an as-needed basis.

“Despite it being one of the strongest seasons, it was also one of the most difficult to shoot.
But it is my favourite season so far, it is just so strong, the storylines throughout it – it feels like there is a change of pace, there is an ominous feeling that is happening this season,” said Bell. “It is sort of like Harry Potter when it was getting darker, it is a little bit of that feeling that we can’t stop this inevitability.”

Ominous? Dark? Harry Potter? March 6 can’t come soon enough.

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