The show’s cast and executive producer tease the “symphony of violence” to come in Season 7, spill on the pressures of ending the show before the book series wraps and celebrate Caitriona Balfe’s directing gig.
War, what is it good for? Well, on Outlander, some fresh storytelling!
Following a shortened sixth season, the Starz series is back with 16 episodes — spilt into two parts — focusing on time traveler Claire and Highland hubby Jamie Fraser’s time in America leading up to the Revolutionary War.
Season 7 will take the gang back to the battlefield, introduce new faces like the Hunters and re-introduce Jamie’s son William as a young adult ready to fight alongside the British. Joining show regular Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, John Bell (Young Ian) and David Berry (Lord John Grey) this time around are Charles Vandervaart as the aged-up William and Joey Philips and Izzy Meikle-Small as Denzell and Rachel Hunter, a brother and sister pair of Quakers who find themselves caught up in both the battle and another of the show’s trademark love triangles.
TooFab spoke with Bell, Berry, Vandervaart, Miekle-Small, Phillips and executive producer Maril Davis about the challenges of bringing the Revolutionary War to life, what the battle between the colonies and crown will mean for the characters of the show and how they’re preparing for the eighth and final season … which will likely drop before Diana Gabaldon’s books on which the show is based have even wrapped.
“This is on a scale probably not seen since season three, Culloden, it’s gonna be explosive,” Bell teased of the new episodes. “We’ve got some great directors, great crew that knew exactly what we’re doing, it’s gonna look amazing. We’ve got all these characters on different sides, facing off each other. It’s operatic, it’s a symphony of violence, it’s great.”
“Wow, I’d watch that,” cracked Berry.
Davis agreed, saying it was a “pretty massive” undertaking to bring the American War of Independence to life, before teasing that each battle will be told through a character’s POV. “Certain battles are hard to film in totality, they’re very huge,” she continued, adding that by having viewers watch some of the skirmishes “from a personal perspective” grounds them “in a way that I think personalizes it and this season makes it so much more emotional.”
By shifting the POV, the show is also able to highlight even more storylines — which Davis promised “all come back to Jamie and Claire eventually” — and give more time to new characters as well.
“We have a lot of new characters this season and you never know how that’s going to work and I was so excited to see that they all kind of held their own,” added Davis. “We got some really exciting stuff with Charles and his character William and the Hunters and Buck and Rob Cameron and all these new characters.”
Bringing William and John Grey back into the fold really shakes things up for Jamie, who will find himself torn between fighting for the freedom of his family or facing off against his son, who comes to America with dreams of fighting for the British.
“Lord John’s on one side and his son William, and Jamie is on the other,” said Berry. “Lord John’s always been torn between his loyalties of the heart to the Frasers and of course his duties to his country and being loyal to the crown. That is always a source of drama and tension.”
“But the series progresses I think we’re gonna see deterioration in the relationship between Lord John and Jamie and maybe those divisions between them become a lot more stark and they maybe even become enemies,” he teased. “Who knows? Frenemies? What are they? Enemies? Friends? There’s a lot of complexity to be drawn out in the relationship in the macro and the micro scale.”
Though fans have sixteen episodes to look forward to this season, it’s not the end of the line for the Frasers just yet. The show has already been renewed for an eighth and final season which, like Game of Thrones, will presumably be released before the books acting as its source material have concluded. Though Davis previously said she knows how Gabaldon’s series will end and she did not want to “step on her ending,” the EP told TooFab she actually doesn’t know how the books will conclude.
“The pressure is we’re going to have to kind of end it in a different way that’s also satisfying. She’s the only one who can end it in the real way and I don’t know what she’s going to do, I don’t know if she’s going to kill off a character, I don’t know how she’s going to do that but I feel pressure because I’m a huge fan of the books and I want to leave us in a place that where it’s satisfying,” she explained.
“But I also, selfishly, am like do we want to leave it open ended? Do we want to do a movie? Could something else happen? So it’s hard … series finales they don’t always go well,” Davis added. “Obviously, Seinfeld got so much flack, Sopranos, it’s a lot of pressure. There aren’t as many examples of shows that really did it right and stuck the landing. So, yes. Do I feel the pressure? Yes.”
Contributing to the final season in a new role is Balfe, who recently confirmed she’ll be directing at least one episode once they start filming. After directing some second unit moments this season to — as Davis put it — “get some experience under [her] belt,” she’ll take control on Season 8.
“She’s talked to us a lot over the years about wanting to do that. I was so excited for her, and also you never know how someone’s going to come into something like that. She came in with so much enthusiasm and so much prep and there was so much palpable excitement on the set when she was there from her that I’m just excited for her,” said Davis. “And I think everyone on the crew is really rooting for her.”
Overall, Bell said being on the show has been “such an amazing experience” for him, saying it would be “impossible” to “try and sum up this journey in just a few words.”
“We’re all incredibly lucky to be able to tell this full story to it’s deserved ending and get the fans exactly the show they deserve,” he continued. “We’re all immensely proud of this. It’s going to be an emotional day when we finally wrap, but I think we can give each other a pat on the back.”
As for how they’ll celebrate come wrap day? “There’s gonna be a big party at John’s house,” exclaimed Berry, “Massive, we can just send out invitations now!”
The Outlander Season 7 premiere starts streaming Friday at midnight on the STARZ app, before airing tonight on linear TV later that evening at 8pm ET.