Everything you need to know about Outlander Season 3.
Outlander season 3 is officially happening! Starz picked up Outlander with showrunner Ronald D. Moore for seasons 3 and 4, which will adapt Gabaldon's Voyager and Drums of Autumn novels, respectively.
Outlander executive producer Matthew B. Roberts has been sharing glimpses of the season three set via his Instagram account, and they are beautiful as well as a way to get excited about the new season while we suffer through #Droughtlander.
Outlander recently moved its season three production from Scotland to South Africa to film the sea voyage scenes needed for the upcoming season. Here's some photo evidence...
And here are some teases from the famous print shop scene...
Outlander Season 3 Release Date
The Outlander Season 3 premiere date is coming in September. They haven't picked an actual day for it yet, but at least we now know the month. In the mean time, if you want to catch up on Outlander season 2, be sure to check out our complete episode guide.
“While ‘Droughtlander’ will last just a little longer, we feel it is important to allow the production the time and number of episodes needed to tell the story of the Voyager book in its entirety,"Carmi Zlotnik, President of Programming for Starz said in a statement. "The scale of this book is immense, and we owe the fans the very best show. Returning in September will make that possible.”
Does this mean we'll get a longer season, too?
Starz also revealed a new official synopsis for the season:
The story picks up right after Claire (Caitriona Balfe) travels through the stones to return to her life in 1948. Now pregnant with Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) child, she struggles with the fallout of her sudden reappearance and its effect on her marriage to her first husband, Frank (Tobias Menzies). 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 Trailer
We've yet to get an Outlander season 3 trailer, but we'll be sure to post it here as soon as it drops. In the mean time, can we interest you in this hilarious video of all the things Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe are looking forward to in South Africa?
Outlander Season 3 Story
Caitriona Balfe, who is up for a Golden Globe for her work in Outlander season 3, spoke to The Wrap about what to expect in the upcoming season, saying:
The great thing about this show is that every new season, everything sort of gets turned on its head. In the beginning, when we come back this season, I think everyone knows at this point the stories are quite separate. We see a lot of Jamie’s story, and what he has gone through in 20 years. We see a bit of Claire and Frank, Claire and Brianna, and you see a bit of Claire as a professional doctor, surgeon. It’s just so different.
Perhaps even more interestingly, Balfe teased the eventual Jamie/Claire reunion.
Of course, there will be a reunion. Which I think is really beautiful and it’s been filmed really beautifully. It’s very interesting, it’s like, how do two people come together after not seeing each other for 20 years, after both believing each other have died, and how do you build something real again?
In honor of their People's Choice Awards win, Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe did a Facebook Live question-and-answer session. In addition to it just being generally charming, the stars talked about what their characters' eventual reunion will look like, with Heughan teasing:
It's kind of a surprise for Jamie. Obviously within a day of her returning, all hell breaks loose. His world is turned upside down, just like every time Claire is involved. I think the printshop obviously is going to be hopefully everything that we wanted it to be. But I think in the episodes before, there's so much that goes on; it's going to be a very exciting Season 3.
We also 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.
Guys, season three is going to be so angsty.
Speaking to Bustle earlier this week, Balfe teased a different kind of Claire when we meet back up with her in Outlander season 3, saying:
I think, not always, but people generally — the harsher edges of their personality, they learn how to maybe smooth them out a little bit. So maybe Claire isn’t so stubborn, or she isn’t so quick-tempered. She’s learned how to control those urges a little bit.
Outlander Season 3 Cast
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."
We've got some Outlander season 3 casting updates! Gary Young (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny) has joined the Outlander cast as Mr. Willoughby, while Charlie Hiett (The Suspicions of Mr Whincher) will assume the role of Captain Thomas Leonard.
Willoughby, "a Chinese man with a deep knowledge of Eastern medicine," Willoughby will pop up in Jaime's timeline as a confidante of the Scotsman, as well as an outsider in 18th century Scotland.
Leonard, on the other hand, is the British, "by-the-book" captain of the Artemis who earns the post when his commanding officers die untimely deaths. Starz teases of the character: " Above all, he wants to do what is right by the British Navy — whether or not it is right by his own personal morals." Yikes.
Outlander has also 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.