Very soon, Outlander will return for the second half of its seventh season, which will find Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Clare Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) back in Scotland for the first time in a while. Jamie has some misgivings about returning to his homeland, as we can see in the clips going around ahead of the premiere.
“Returning home obviously is going to be so rewarding for Jamie, but also for the fans,” Heughan because I think the fans, they get to see a lot of, their favorite characters and their favorite locations," Heughan told AP News. That said, the trailers haven't made a secret of the fact that the Fraser will eventually separate, with Claire heading back to the American colonies.
"Look, nothing good ever happens when the Frasers are separated," Balfe said at New York Comic Con back in October, according to The Direct. "And I think this season is probably the greatest example of that. The relationship is tested more than it's been for many, maybe a couple of decades."
"Claire learns a lot about herself... But I think they also learn that, you know, at this point, it's never a what if, like, will they won't they? You know, we know that they're together and they love each other. But I think it's more like, how are they going to get through this, rather than will they? And that's the kind of interesting thing about its growing marriage."
It sounds like there will be some unexpected twists coming our way, as Balfe hinted to TV Insider: "It was honestly one of the most difficult episodes I filmed in a while. wrapping my head around some of the stuff that came from the book that Claire does," she said. "I think I made it believable."
Meanwhile, Heughan described the coming separation as "traumatic," and teased that there will be further fireworks between Jamie and his son William, who right now doesn't know that Jamie is her father. "And when Jamie comes back, he comes back into a situation that's highly difficult for him to understand, between Claire and John Gray, and then at that point, William, you'll find out, discovers who his real father is."
"And it's, of course, hugely dangerous for William, but also really hard for William to fathom, to put together. And Jamie's always wanted to be a part of his son's life, but could never be directly. So it's gonna be a huge storyline that's played out throughout Season 7 and perhaps into Season 8...It's a catalyst for William. It sort of sends him on this spiral that has all these repercussions. So, it really is a catalyst for the explosiveness and drama of the next two seasons."
How many Outlander books will the show adopt in the end?
After the second half of season 7, there's only one season of Outlander left, which may have fans of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander book series asking questions. Gabaldon has written nine Outlander books so far and has one more planned to finish off the series. Will the show be able to adapt all of them?
By the sound of it, not quite. "Season 7 actually encompasses the last little part of book six, because we didn't, weren't able to finish in Season 6, then books seven and eight," explained executive producer Maril Davis. "Season 8 will be book nine... I wish we had more of book ten."
Gabaldon herself said that season 8 will include "little pieces of book 10," but the show won't tell the full Outlander story as the author envisioned it. "I mean, I would love to finish ," Davis continued. "I mean, whether or not all the characters survive, don't survive in Season 8. I would like to come back for book ten." Maybe they'll be able to fit something into the upcoming spinoff series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood.
Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe remember filming their final Outlander scene
The cast and crew have actually already filmed the final season of Outlander; barring some pick-ups here or there, they're done. “It was very emotional. I was very emotional,” Balfe remembered of the final scene she filmed.
“I was, too,” Heughan concurred. “We ended on a scene, well, I think — it was quite tough to do because it was a real Jamie-Claire moment, so it felt quite fitting. And I think they scheduled it like that. But it was also quite intense because a lot of the crew came to sort of celebrate or watch the final take of the final scene.”
The memory still seems fresh for both of them. “here was a lot of words,” Balfe added. “It was really hard to get through it because it also felt like everything had sort of this double meaning, you know, it’s a lot of talk about goodbyes and things.”
It's going to be hard to say goodbye to Jamie and Claire in season 8. Hell, it sounds like there will be some painful goodbyes in the second half of season 4. "We say goodbye to a lot of locations, a lot of characters in Season 7B,” Heughan said. But all things must come to an end. “I played Jamie when he was 23 and now he’s sort of around 60. So it’s quite a journey,” Heughan finished. “It has been our lives for the last 11 years...So, yes, it’s quite a change that we’re about to face.”
New episodes of Outlander will start to drop on Starz on Friday, November 22.
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