Outlander Season 3 is officially happening (and so is 4). Here's everything we know about the upcoming season...
Outlander season 3 is officially happening! Starz is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first novel in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series by renewing the TV show it inspired for two more seasons.
The premium cable network has officially picked up Outlander from showrunner Ronald D. Moore for seasons 3 and 4, which will adapt Gabaldon's Voyager and Drums of Autumn novels, respectively. Here's everything we know so far about Outlander season three...
Outlander Season 3 — Latest News
We have a first look at Claire, a just-born Brianna, and Frank in Outlander season three, and it's actually pretty adorable. Check it out, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly...
Speaking to EW, star Caitriona Balfe puts this scene in context for us:
This is right after Claire gives birth to Brianna. Those scenes are wonderful because it's a new beginning, but it's so fraught with so many other things. Obviously, this is Jamie's child, but Claire's in a new time and believes that Jamie is dead. So she's really trying to look forward and give her daughter a new life, a stable family.
I think it's difficult for both of them. Frank is coming to terms with his wife. He didn't quite know what had happened. She disappeared and she's back. They're tentatively trying to see if they can patch things up and allow themselves to embrace a future together. They really do try, but it's not quite that easy.
Season three is going to be so angsty.
Outlander Season 3 Release Date
The Outlander Season 3 premiere date hasn't been announced yet, but the show usually shows up in the spring. We do know that it will air sometime in 2017. If you want to catch up on Outlander season 2, be sure to check out our complete episode guide.
Outlander Season 3 Images
We also have the first official images (courtesy of Entertainment Weekly) from Outlander season three! Check out these four new shots from season three that all seem to be from the dreaded Battle of Culloden...
That last one has to be a dream, right? It certainly looks like the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden that Claire is traipsing through, and we know that Claire had already returned to the 20th century at this point. We know that season three follows Claire and Jamie's journeys away from one another in the years following Claire's return to "modern" times.
Outlander Season 3 Synopsis
We've got an official synopsis for the third season of Outlander from Starz. As one might expect, it's filled with suggestions of angst and epic romance...
“Book Three” will be based on the third of the eight books in the Outlander series, entitled Voyager, The third season of Outlander picks up right after Claire travels through the stones to return to her life in 1948. Now pregnant, she struggles with the fallout of her sudden reappearance and its effect on her marriage to her first husband, Frank. Meanwhile, in the 18th century, Jamie suffers from the aftermath of his doomed last stand at the historic battle of Culloden, as well as the loss of Claire. As the years pass, Jamie and Claire attempt to make a life apart from one another, each haunted by the memory of their lost love. The budding possibility that Claire can return to Jamie in the past breathes new hope into Claire’s heart… as well as new doubt. Separated by continents and centuries, Claire and Jamie must find their way back to each other. As always, adversity, mystery, and adventure await them on the path to reunion. And the question remains: when they find each other, will they be the same people who parted at the standing stones, all those years ago?
Outlander Season 3 Cast
Outlander has cast two new characters for season three. Hannah James and Tanya Reynolds will play Dunsany sisters Geneva and Isobel, respectively.
Starz describes eldest daughter Geneva as "as beautiful as she is headstrong," while also "petulant, spoiled, and demanding of the servants at their home — Helwater." While Geneva is used to getting what she wants, that petulance masks a "vulnerability" and "naivete" because of her sheltered upbringing.
Isobel is Geneva's younger, plainer sister is "warm, friendly, and genuine" and "inherently more likeable and compassionate towards others."
Outlander has cast Lauren Lyle as Marsali, the 18-year-old "high-spirited" daughter of Laoghaire. Starz officialy description of the character states:
Blond and lovely, like her mother who we first met in season one when her youthful crush on Jamie Fraser was halted by his marriage to Claire, but Marsali has a rebellious and romantic mind of her own. She knows what she wants and she goes after it – reputation and propriety be damned.
Also per Entertainment Weekly, Outlander has cast its adult Fergus (we're really going to miss Little Fergus, played wonderfully by Romann Berrux). César Domboy (The Walk, The Borgias) has been cast to play Fergus, the French boy Jamie and Claire were raising as their own, in the upcoming season.
Here's Fergus' official character description:
Born into a brothel, Fergus has grown up into a charming, devilishly handsome man with a strong sense of loyalty and decorum, despite his unconventional upbringing. He is the ultimate romantic, wearing his heart on his sleeve and falling in and out of love easily. However, Fergus’ devotion to Jamie has never wavered, making the Frenchman an integral part of the Fraser clan. Still, his debonair demeanor masks a longing for a lasting love and a permanent sense of belonging.
Outlander has cast Australian actor David Berry (A Place to Call Home) in the important season three role of Lord John William Grey, the former British soldier turned governor of Ardsmuir Prison who will become friends with Jamie while the latter is imprisoned under Lord John's care. Here's the full character description from Starz...
Lord John William Grey is a steadfast and honorable British subject, torn between a finely-honed sense of familial duty and a strong moral compass of right and wrong. He is boyishly handsome with an upper class rearing — the consummate gentleman. However, a scandal from his past has relegated Lord John to an undesirable position as governor of a desolate prison in Northern Scotland.
Outlander season three has also added two new members to its massive, ever-growing cast. According to Deadline, John Bell (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) has joined the cast as Young Ian Murray, who will be joining Jamie in the 18th century. Young Ian is "a tall, gangly Scottish lad with a heart of gold, a stubborn streak and a penchant for getting into trouble." He is more like his uncle Jamie than he is his father, and constantly trying to prove himself a man.
In the 20th century Boston timeline, Wil Johnson (Waking the Dead) joins the cast as Joe Abernathy, Claire's friend and medical colleague. Joe is "intelligent, charismatic, with a wry and irreverent sense of humor [and] is a loyal confidant with great affection for Claire." As a black man in the mid-20th century, things are tough for Joe. He and Claire bond over their status as outsiders in the mostly white, male medical profession and form a lifelong friendship.
Outlander Season 3 Production & Filming
In other news: Production has officially begun on Outlander season 3!
I really believe them, too, because they've posted numerous videos from the set. It's actually kind of adorable how excited they are about it. Here are Sam Heughan and Ronald D. Moore from the set...
As you can tell from the vids, the production is back at the Battle of Culloden. With all this time travel, it can be hard to keep track of where — and when — we are. Outlander season 3 will, in part, pick up with Jamie directly following the Battle of Culloden.
At the Creative Emmys, Ronald D. Moore and production designer Jon Gary Steele chatted with Gold Derby about what to expect from Outlander season 3. The details are vague — but it's pretty exciting to hear them talk about all of the ship-dwelling that will happen in the upcoming season. Moore teased:
It's as different from the second season as the second was from the first. It involves a sea voyage and going to the Caribbean and it goes to Jamaica. It has war elements. There's more 20th century stuff, back and forth time travel elements, so it's a big, new, brand new season.
Moore has previously said about the challenge of adding a lot of ship scenes to the show:
The technology now, between real ships like what they have in Black Sails and CG, it's now developed to a place where you can believe it. It's no longer just the models on the water tank at Paramount, which is clearly like this big. Now you can really realize on a television budget what Pirates of the Caribbean was doing 8-10 years ago. Now, we can actually do better CG than that on the television front.
We've got some sneak peeks — thanks to Twitter — from the set. The below production at the University of Glasgow could be a stand-in for Frank and Claire's Boston adventures...
There's also this photo of Caitriona Balfe as a very pregnant Claire, filmed in the same University of Glasgow location as the above shot...
