Outlander and Outlander: Blood Of My Blood spoilers ahead.
While fans eagerly await the seventh season of the time-travelling series – coming summer 2023 – the producers of Outlander have delivered some bad news, and some good news too.
While the bad news is that the series will be coming to an end after a final eighth season in 2024, the good news is that it does not mean the end of the Outlander TV universe – there is going to be an Outlander prequel, entitled Outlander: Blood Of My Blood.
So what’s it all about, will it feature our favourite tragedy-prone couple, Jamie and Claire Fraser, and when can we watch it?
Here’s everything you need to know…
Outlander: Blood Of My Blood potential release date: When is it out?
On January 19, 2023 it was announced that the prequel had been greenlit – it's likely that the producers have been given the go-ahead to start work on the series but won’t have started filming yet.
While the general story has probably been mapped out – we know that it will be spread over 10 episodes – it is unlikely that a script has been written, or that there is a cast and crew in place.
The announcement does mention that Outlander producers Maril Davis, Matthew B Roberts and Ronald D Moore will all be working on the new series.
It’s unclear whether they will be working on Blood Of My Blood at the same time as the final seasons of Outlander, but we would expect the prequel series to air when Outlander’s eighth and final series has finished – which could mean we have to wait until late next year or even early 2025 to see it.
Outlander: Blood Of My Blood cast: Who will be in it?
No cast has been announced yet, but we can guess which characters will appear in the series.
Outlander: Blood Of My Blood will tell the story of Jamie Fraser’s parents, Brian and Ellen, and how they fell in love in the years before Jamie, his brother William (who died when he was little) and his sister Jenny were born.
As the series will be set before Jamie was even a twinkle in his father’s eye, current characters from Outlander such as Jamie, Claire, Brianna and Roger are unlikely to be featured unless there are flash-forwards (or Claire does a bit of time travelling to meet her in-laws – though that’s probably just us hoping, since it isn’t a storyline in Diana Gabaldon’s books).
There will be a few characters familiar to Outlander fans, however.
While Jamie’s mother Ellen and father Brian will be the focus of the show, their families are sure to make an appearance. That means we will get to see what warring siblings Colum and Dougal Mackenzie were like when they were younger, as they are Ellen’s protective brothers.
Ellen also has three sisters, Janet, Flora and Jocasta – Jocasta, of course, being the widowed aunt who welcomes Jamie and Claire when they arrive at her home River Run, in the New World, in season four of Outlander.
Brian – whom we met in a season one flashback when he collapsed after seeing his son Jamie being whipped by Jack Randall – has two half brothers, Simon and Alexander, and his father is Simon, Lord Lovat, whom Jamie and Claire met in season two when they were trying to raise an army to fight the English during the Jacobite Rising.
And we know that fan favourite Murtagh was around during Brian and Ellen’s courtship (he had a not-so-secret crush on Ellen, according to Jocasta in season four of Outlander) so we'd expect him to be around in the prequel, too.
Since the series should be set more than 20 years before the first season of Outlander, it is unlikely that Graham McTavish (Dougal), Gary Lewis (Colum), Maria Doyle Kennedy (Jocasta), Duncan Lacroix (Murtagh), Clive Russell (Lord Simon Lovat) or Andrew Whipp (Brian Fraser) will reprise their roles, and new cast members will be playing the younger versions of their characters.
However, it is possible that some of the original cast could could return in flash forwards (after all, Outlander is a time-travelling show) or playing other characters – Graham McTavish has already done this once before, briefly playing Dougal’s descendant Buck in season five.
When casting announcements are made, we’ll make sure they are listed here.
Outlander: Blood Of My Blood plot: What will happen?
In the announcement about the series, showrunner Matthew B Roberts said: “Blood Of My Blood is, at its heart, a love story. It will explore to what lengths a person will go to find love in a time when love is considered a luxury, and when marriages are made strategically, often for political or financial gain.”
“The title is a nod to Jamie Fraser’s marriage vow to Claire,” he added, “and there will be several names and faces that Outlander fans will know and recognise.”
Brian and Ellen’s love story has, in fact, already been told in Outlander (if you have been paying attention). In season one episode ‘The Wedding’, Jamie tells Claire all about how his father and mother eloped from Castle Leoch during the Great Gathering, because Ellen was promised to someone else, and there have also been mentions in the show of Brian’s relationship with his father, Murtagh's deep friendship with the couple, and Ellen’s estrangement from brother Colum after her elopement.
Diana Gabaldon’s novels fill out Brian and Ellen's story a little more, including their move to beloved Fraser home Lallybroch (which Brian built for his family), and mentions of their children William, Janet (also known as Jenny) and little Jamie. Gabaldon has also teased a Brian/Ellen novel – sharing a first snippet on Christmas Day, 2022, which you can read here.
Outlander: Blood Of My Blood trailer: When can I see it?
With no cast in place and filming yet to begin, it will be quite a while before we see a trailer for Outlander: Blood Of My Blood. Keep checking back, as we’ll add it here as soon as it is released.
Outlander airs on Starz in the US, and streams on Lionsgate+ in the UK.
