The final season of Outlander is on the way, but Starz has no intention of letting go of its most popular series. Later this year, it'll debut Blood of My Blood, an Outlander prequel series that will split its time between two time periods: on the one hand, we'll visit 18th century Scotland and see how Jamie Fraser's parents, Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) and Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), fell in love with each other. Meanwhile, in the wake of World War I, Claire Fraser's parents Julia Moriston (Hermione Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine) are doing a courtship dance of their own.
There may not be literal time travel involved this time (or maybe there will be, it's hard to know yet), but the show will give fans a double dose of the kind of period romance they've come to love. Make that a quadrouple dose: according to The A.V. Club, Starz has already renewed Outlander: Blood of My Blood for a second season even though the first hasn't even premiered!
“The passion and talent our cast and crew have poured into Outlander: Blood Of My Blood has been extraordinary and we’re thrilled to continue these in Season Two,” showrunner Matthew B. Roberts said in a statement. “Just as audiences fell in love with Jamie and Claire, we hope viewers will be enamored by these new couples when they meet them this summer.”
Starz executive Kathryn Busby also weighed in: “The world of Outlander has captivated audiences with its sweeping storytelling and unforgettable characters. With Blood Of My Blood, we’ve expanded the universe in a way that honors the original, while charting bold new territory. Fans—longtime and new—will be drawn to the powerful love stories at the heart of this next chapter, and we’re proud to continue building on the franchise’s legacy with Matt and our longtime-partners at Sony who have worked tirelessly to make Outlander the global phenomenon it has become.”
Will fans actually fall head over heels for this new take on Outlander? We won't know until episodes start dropping, but I think it's a great idea for Starz to get ahead of the curve and renew the show early. In fact, production has already begun!
Fans have watched these past few years as the waiting times between seasons of new TV shows have grown longer and longer; just look at HBO shows like House of the Dragon and The Last of Us, where waits of two years or more have become the norm. But if Starz is already getting rolling on a second season of Blood of My Blood, that means they can keep the wait to a minimum.
Of course, if no one likes the first season of Blood of My Blood, then it won't really matter how short or long the wait is for the second. But that'll be a problem for August, when the show premieres. The eighth and final season of Outlander will be alone sometime after that, although we're not yet sure if it'll be in late 2025 or early 2026.
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