Droughtlander is almost over ya’ll and I couldn’t be more excited. Starz confirmed that Outlander season six will wrap filming this week and the show’s star, Sam Heughan, confirmed on Tuesday, World Outlander Day, that they were done filming. Starz also confirmed that season six of Outlander will be released early in 2022. We are almost in the home stretch. This has been the longest wait Outlander fans have had for a new season. Thanks COVID. We still have several months before we find out what happens to Claire and Jamie in the New World. But we’ve been promised a 90-minute extended first episode for all our troubles. Below are a few more details from The Wrap:
Sorry, that’s as specific as we’re getting right now in terms of timing. Whenever it happens, the eight-episode sixth season will kick off with a 90-minute premiere.
“Outlander” Season 6 sees a continuation of Claire and Jamie’s fight to protect those they love, as they navigate the trials and tribulations of life in colonial America, according to Starz. Establishing a home in the New World is by no means an easy task, particularly in the wild backcountry of North Carolina – and perhaps most significantly – during a period of dramatic political upheaval. The Frasers strive to maintain peace and flourish within a society which – as Claire knows all too well – is unwittingly marching towards Revolution.
“We are excited to get into the editing room to work on bringing the fans one step closer to reuniting with the family back on Fraser’s Ridge,” Matthew B. Roberts, “Outlander” showrunner, said in a statement. “Filming in 2021 has presented an unprecedented set of challenges which led us to the decision to truncate the season in order to bring the fans the most vibrant and dynamic season as soon as possible. Dinna fash, we will then film an extended season seven with 16 episodes next year as life returns to normalcy.”
“We are committed to telling the story fully with gripping and bold storylines in the upcoming eight-episode season that introduces viewers to new characters including Tom, Allan and Malva Christie (Mark Lewis-Jones, Alexander Vlahos and Jessica Reynolds) who create tension on the Ridge,” Christina Davis, president of original programming for Starz, added. “We can’t wait for viewers to see the exciting sixth season that reflects the Starz #TakeTheLead initiative through unapologetic storytelling and powerful female characters.”
Of course we ended season five with a lot of rape and mayhem. Outlander is literally the only show for which I tolerate the degradation of women. There is a lot of violence and sometimes I struggle with it. The fantasy world of Outlander and Claire and Jamie’s love keeps me returning every season. It has also been amazing to travel through time to before these lands were the United States. I have read the books up to book four so maybe I can finish the series before season six drops. I am also glad to hear that the show has been renewed for season seven.
I am looking forward to season six. If I am not mistaken it will be based on the American Revolution, so the British are coming and there will be a lot of red coat action. I always feel conflicted about the American Revolution. On one hand, if the British would have won, my enslaved ancestors would have been freed one hundred years earlier. However I am not sure what a British-controlled America would have been like seeing that Britain is STILL grappling with racism and their hand in the last few hundred years of world history. All I know is, it’s gonna be a wild wide, Jamie is fine, and I’m parched.
The news is out! It’s #WorldOutlanderDay and what better day to announce that Season 6 is wrapping this week and will be premiering in early 2022 with a 90-minute premiere episode! @Outlander_STARZ pic.twitter.com/Cxj4MKyYn6
— Maril Davis (@TallShipProds) June 1, 2021
THATS A WRAP!!!!
Well… on Friday.
Season 6 @Outlander_STARZ is FINISHED!
We have an extended length first ep for you too.
This season will be 8eps with an extended season 7….
Much to celebrate!
😘🥃 pic.twitter.com/R1qNiXHLcJ— Sam Heughan (@SamHeughan) June 1, 2021
Photos credit: Starz via Instagram
Sadly I have never seen this show but at some point i will get round to it – however I LOVED the ‘Men in Kilts’ tour of Scotland show that Sam and Graham McTavish did. They were HILARIOUS.
Note to the Cambridges – Men in Kilts is how to do a tour promoting Scotland. Thou they can leave out Big Willy skinny dipping in the North Sea.
Yes! My husband and I love Men in Kilts. It’s so good!!
Omg! Men in Kilts is my favorite!!!
I absolutely adore Men in Kilts! I’m thrilled that there’s going to be a season 2, also!
My mom loves Outlander but doesn’t get Starz so she watches it at our house….its an awkward show to watch with your parents for some scenes, LOL.
I like it okay but it just doesnt click for me, I’m not sure why. I did read the first few books….I think only the first three. Maybe I should pick back up and see if I can get back into series.
Do it! Do it! 😀
@becks1 it doesn’t click because you are watching it with your parents 😉
That’s definitely part of the issue, I have to get up at out of the room at some parts, LOLOL. And I’m okay with some sex in front of them, but some of those scenes…..lol. It’s why I also leave a lot of the episodes for my mom to watch alone if she’s babysitting and the boys are in bed, haha.
@L84Tea – maybe I’ll grab the fourth book and see if I can get back into it, some nice “light” summer reading haha.
LMAO! That is EXACTLY why.
Loved Book 4, hated what they did to Season 4 on TV. Terrible CGI green screens, botched sex scenes, changes for no good reason. The show moved to North America, but filmed in Scotland. It lost all the authenticity.
Omg I don’t know how you watched the Jaime rape scene with your parents. I couldn’t even watch it. I had to fast forward and I was by myself. It was way too long and felt gratuitous at some point. It was too much. I guess kudos for showing rape from a male perspective but the violence was… I fast forwarded through Claire’s rape as well. It was too much. I know women had it bad back then, but I can’t watch women being treated violently anymore. It makes me psychically ill.
That said they should have never moved it from Scotland because I felt like that helped greatly to remind people of Scottish independence. The British really screwed the Scottish over and decimated their clans. It demolished a lot of their history. I also thought it was cool that they spoke the original language. I’m tempted to read the books but I finally binged the entire series last year and if they deviate well I’m not going to bother because I’ve already invested in the series.
I really loved the first two seasons of the show were absolutely fantastic, but it lost me in season three and I haven’t gone back for it since. I truly wished they had kept the show in Scotland, UK and Europe, I feel like it would’ve made far better television. I have absolutely no idea why they felt the need to send it out in America, aren’t there enough stories on TV and film about the American Revolution? I’m not sure what the US would’ve been like if the British had won the American Revolution, my nearest guess would be very much like modern-day Australia or Canada, so when you compare those places to the US I think it would’ve been an improvement.
I think it ties into the Highland Clearances (and the potato famine) where many highland Scots left to find a better life in the New World.
Yeah, I’m really not a fan of Outlander in America because of what the author has done with the characters but America was really the best prospect for Jaime’s character post Culloden.
I wish the series had done a better job with explaining that history as I think Scottish history isn’t covered tremendously well in media. And that history is American history as it feeds so much of the early immigration here and the attitudes that formed our nation.
But I think most avoid it because they don’t want to discuss how many jumped feet first into the slave trade.
That’s the plotline of the books though. They end up in the colonies at the end of book 3 I think.
I highly recommend the books. There’s a lot more of Scotland coming than you may realize.
It’s based on books in which the characters end up in America by accident and just decide to stay and not risk the journey back to Scotland because the main character gets terribly seasick.
Penguin – The books cover the Frasers’ involvement in the Revolution. This was the author’s intent – not a tv ratings grab by the show’s producers.
Book 3 lost me just as Season 3 lost you.
@penguin totally with you. I lived the first 2 season but then it became more of an adventure than a love story. I was going for the love story. I loved the show and now I like it. That is why I absolutely love bridgerton, because there is no way they further the story of simon and daphne, they are rebuilding another story from scratch which is why i’m sticking to the series with or without RegeJean
“Of course we ended season five with a lot of rape and mayhem”
I watched some/most of the first season, but really could not get past all the raping. Was wondering if maybe that became less frequent in future seasons, bc the story sounds so fascinating, but can’t handle all the raping
I have referred many people to this show, but I always give a very strong disclaimer about it–particularly the last two episodes of season 1. Those were the hardest two episodes to watch.
There was a big gap for me in reading the books (I only read the first three) because of the end of book 1. I read the first book pretty quickly, but those last few chapters…..yikes. so I had to take a big break before book 2 and then I read books 2 and 3 pretty quickly. It can definitely be triggering for many.
@Becks1, yeah it’s pretty brutal. Sadly, I didn’t find the book nearly as intense as the actual episode though if you can believe that. Sam and Tobias’s acting was just off the charts. I love the first 3 books the best because they’re the most Scottish related, but they really do keep staying good. I think it was the 6th book that I just flew thru (A Breath of Snow & Ashes) because it was so fantastic.
I just can’t watch shows with raping. Sorry. I just cannot spin that as something I can “get past” for the sake of a show, especially one like this where it sounds like it’s frequent and brutal.
It’s over the top! I am with you.
Absolutely love the cast, love the romance but WAY too much rape.
Agreed. It’s too much. I entirely appreciate (unfortunately) that that’s reality but it verges on gratuitous like GOT. We get it. The world is not, nor has ever been safe.
It helps me that it is indiscriminate raping that makes sense for the time period, and is evenly divided between men and women being raped. Yes, it’s absolutely horrific, but I am not into watching a show about this time period that glosses over how hard and gross it really was. And it really was.
Yeah, I love so much about the show, but the frequency of rape and sexual assault/abuse, and threats of those things is way too much.
I get that that comes from the source material. But DA’s reliance on that as a plot point, to amp the drama or provide character development makes me think much less of her as an author. And TPTB’s intense focus on Black Jack Randall’s torture, assault of Jaime, to the point that it almost seemed like a fetish/obsession on the part of the showrunners, nearly lost me in S1. And yes, Tobias Menzies is a very good, compelling actor and that plot point was an important one in the books, but it was really over the top. But the Outlander team really seems to get into ringing that bell again (Jaime) and again (Claire) and again (Fergus) and again (Wee Ian … at least the threat was there … as it has been with several other characters in several other situations) and again (Brianna) and again (Claire) and in ways that drag the story down.
Good God I was going to try this show but all this talk about excessive rape has made me want to avoid it forever…..
The last season or so I also got very upset watching so many depictions of hangings. Like every other episode was either a rape or someone being hanged. Had to get up and walk away or fast forward. My husband who usually enjoys more violent tv/movies than I do even was relishing the “quieter” episodes that were just character development. But it’s formulaic. You get a quiet episode, then a dramatic/someone is in peril episode. And at least you get the little warnings at the beginning and can sort of prepare for it.
Part of the problem is the show runners are cherry picking the most dramatic moments and not spending much time developing character. This really hurt the onscreen relationship between Roger and Bree, which took twists and turns, but made Roger seem like a jerk. Minor characters appear and quickly die before you get attached.
“All I know is, it’s gonna be a wild wide, Jamie is fine, and I’m parched.”
I LOVE THIS SENTENCE. IT’S….PERFECTION.
The 9th book is also FINALLY coming out in November, hurray!
My partner builds the sets on Outlander and the reason season six is so short is because Claire is pregnant in real life and starting to show. Season 7 will be extended. The sets look incredible, even though a lot of it is set in North America, it is still filmed in Scotland 🙂
THANK you for the inside story – short season seemed odd! She seems like such a great person, delighted she is having a life outside the show. That said, this will send some superfans spinning because it interferes with their narrative about the two stars’ private lives.
OMG thank you for this info! I’m so happy they are accommodating her she seems like such a genuinely nice person IRL and I was wondering if she was going to have any kids after getting married a couple years ago. I was late to this show (just started it during the pandemic, re-watched 3x lol) but I get why the fans are/have been so nuts about it.
Sam seems to have a lot going on w his scotch brand and his charity stuff, but I worry that he might be closeted and won’t come out for fear of losing all these adoring female fans. If that’s the case it makes me sad.
I am sure she is happy that you have announced it to the world…
Jodie, I’m excited for the actress. Do you know when she is due?
Jodie, Surely a pregnancy wouldn’t stop them from filming. Caitriona was pregnant in seasons 2, 3 and 4 and they cleverly hid her baby bumps and filmed out of order. If you go back and look you can see her face and body changes from scene to scene. She gets very full in the face. If she is pregnant again this would be number 4 for her and Sam. Yep! I said Sam. He’s the Daddy! I’m sure they bring their kids on set and have lots of help! They have their hands full for sure! 🙂
Utter tosh she’s expecting her fourth child with Sam, that’s just Shipper Speculation. Doubt V much they’d stop halfway through a season just because Balfe is pregnant. There’s ways and means to film a pregnant woman who isn’t pregnant in the plot. They have been filming in Covid times. Much of what they wanted to film is close work with many extras. They have filmed enough to appease the fans. They are hoping to continue filming next year with less restrictions.
I should try to get through season three. It lost me in the Caribbean lol.
Hang in there!! Once they get to the US in season 4 there is a lot of homesteading (plus the usual drama and intrigue). And TBH my favorite shot of the whole series is in the finale of Season 3. It’s so beautiful.
I think you’ve seen the best of it. Season 1 was great, Season 2 was good, and it went downhill from there.
I started the books 20 years ago and anxiously awaited each release, but as I grew older I had a hard time with the use of rape as a plot point over and over again. Tried the show and didn’t make it through the first season. Thought I’d stick with the books and followed the author for awhile but found her views on fan fiction and casting comments to be pretty high and mighty… plus it’s been YEARS since she wrote anything. all this to say that I like looking at still pictures but have lost my taste for all things Outlander, I guess.
She’s also in her mid 70’s and is promising us a final 10th book and she takes fucking forever to write a book so I’m afraid she’s going to kick it before she finishes the last book.
OMG you guys are brutal. I love it. LMAO
DG’s birthday is January 11, 1952. So not in her mid-70s. Though I’m concerned about book 10 getting written in time. Heck I’m 67 and *I* want to be able to read it before I kick off!
I got through the first season of the show and halfway through the second. Same with the books. I didn’t mind the rape as a plot point in the first season because as brutal as it was, it subverted tropes and it was the first time she used it. Then I got bored with it all and the rape thing because a lazy plot device she kept using.
That said, I returned to the show during the Pandemic and watched seasons 4 and 5 and enjoyed them. I like the American seasons, because it makes sense. A ton of Scottish people came to America at that time, after Culloden, and settled in North Carolina as the Frasers do. My ancestors did the same, though I’m not sure they were Scottish. I think they were from the “borderlands,” far northern England or something, among other places. That’s the “American Highlands.”
I find myself preferring Roger and Bri over Jaime and Clare. I know I’m the only one, lol, but they’re less “Epic OTP” and Roger makes me laugh, in real life as well as on the show. Jaime is awesome but he’s a bit too perfect. Nice to hear CB is expecting.
Roger and Bree are the Everyman and Everywoman of the series and I love them so much. Jamie and Claire are, as you say, a little too much sometimes.
Jamie can’t sing and gets horribly sea sick so he’s not perfect. He’s just nearly perfect.
Can’t sing? Seasick? Oh em Gee! There’s a pair of dealbreakers! LOL His horrible temper and his not thinking everything through before pounding people in the face or smacking his wife’s behind with a belt would be more of a character flaw, but hey, can’t wink either. So. . .
I was with this show sort of but the scene with the Native American woman who chose to walk on to the burning pyre with her white man lover…just no. I have no idea if this was part of the book but I don’t care if it is. That kind of colonizer f-ery is a level of revisionist b.s. that is just simply too much to deal with, as if BIPOC don’t have enough to deal with (though I’m guessing this show is not for us).
Oh yes, that was a bit much. Also the character in Season 3, who sailed with them? What was his name? He used an English name as well as a Chinese one. Wow, that was borderline offensive.
Mr Willowby. They needed him because his accupunture cured Jamie’s seasickness. He likely would have died from vomiting on the crossing with how seasick he is supposed to get.
@Anna I think you mean Indigenous. You Refered to I do genius people here as BIPOC. They are indigenous. BIPOC is a random grouping of letters. It’s offensive and it hides the intention of what you are actually trying to say. Please stop using it.
There’s this really interesting research by historian Hannah Skoda that shows that, though we certainly live in a less violent time now, that didn’t mean violence was normal in the past. She says that you can see how abnormal rape was considered to be by tracing the laws against it and the shocked discours in chronicles.
I watched the first few seasons. I especially loved the classic Dior-inspired costuming when the story took Claire and Jamie to the French court at Versailles. However, the continuous use of rape as a plot point really turned me off. I just won’t give my time and viewing minutes to that! There are plenty of other period dramas and love stories that don’t make gratuitous use of the raping of men and women. Plus, I felt that the story was always Jamie/Claire telling the other one “Whatever you do, don’t go over there/talk to that person/do x thing.” Then they would do that thing, get in mortal danger or be raped, the other one has to save them, they have sex. Wash, rinse, repeat. Ugh.
Ha! I wrote my comment before reading yours, but yes to all you said. It’s terrible. My sister loves it and she begged me to watch it. I got as far as maybe season 4, was pissed about one rape, so I looked ahead to find out what happens in the next season and told her I was done. At least Game of Thrones had decent acting and plot so that when I had to fast forward through rape scenes there was something worthwhile to fast forward to.
Oh, I know. To be fair Claire does it more than Jaime does. And she KEEPS doing it. How long do you have to spend in the 18th century before you remember you’re there and you can’t just pipe up and play 20th Century Woman Saves The Day without potentially making things worse? And after they have sex, they declare their undying love for each other.
LMAO this show is so bad. The daughter actor can’t act at all and it relies more heavily on rape as a plot device than Game of Thrones even did.
She also looks nothing like the book’s character. Basically everyone on the outlander subreddit hates the actress.
To be honest though the daughter and her husband are what made Seasons 4-5 watchable for me, to the extent that they were, because they were something different. Jaime and Claire had a great love story but after a few seasons it’s more of the same. Bri and Roger are far less perfect but I kind of love Roger and the actor, even if he can be a big baby, because he’s more realistic. The other time-traveling characters get to the 18th century and adjust, meanwhile he’s more like I would be: “This kind of sucks, I really want to go back to where I can take a shower and not be in constant physical danger.”
I didn’t get far enough in the books to really get into Brianna and Roger’s relationship, but I’d heard book readers love those two. I couldn’t stand them on the show, they have no chemistry and they seem to hate each other. So can that be attributed to the bad acting?
No, I don’t think so. I think it’s a combination of poor decisions by the writers, who made changes from the books, and Sophie Skelton. And I don’t hate her as Brianna, I like her fine, but she doesn’t quite fit in the show. Her character is a 20th century American girl, and it shows. And despite being British, she actually plays it well. Roger might be from he 20th century, but he’s almost a decade older than Brianna and raised in Scotland by a Great Uncle who was also a Presbyterian Minister. He’s bound to be a bit more traditional, so he doesn’t stick out quite so much. Richard Rankin, who plays Roger, is not only a really good actor IMO who does the best with some challenging writing, but is also really funny IRL, is into art, etc. I really like the cast, even when I don’t love the show.
As a Canadian, I don’t think it would have been that much better. Look at the genocide we are finally looking at. The way we treat our Indigenous people is deplorable
I love so much their chemistry and their love. But the violence is sometimes hard
The writing on this show is truly execrable. An enormous amount of sexual violence-as-plot-point (as many have said above, Outlander uses it waaaay more than Game of Thrones), really detestable treatment of BIPOC people especially Indigenous people, and the actress who plays Brianna really cannot act. I have watched 3.5 seasons mainly for the Jamie and Claire actors and some of the supporting actors (Roger, Lord John Grey, Murtaugh, Jamie’s other Scottish clan members before Culloden), the costumes, and sets. But I really have to turn off my brain while watching or else all the glaring terribleness makes it impossible.
Oh and I hate that the author of the books is sooooo disparaging about fan fiction, GMAFB, she based the character of Jamie on a Highlander character from a Doctor Who episode, that’s literally fan fiction! Quelle hypocrite.
I adore LJG. Both the character and the actor who plays him. I hope they get to the season where he plays a larger part.
I haven’t been as interested in the last few seasons, and haven’t watched season 5 yet. I just feel like the writing has gone downhill and entire plot lines feel rushed. Plus I’m not wild about the Brianna/Roger actors. But I’m a huge fan of the books! The ninth book is coming out this fall and I’m psyched. Maybe it will prod me to catch up on the show.
I have a love hate relationship with the show. I love the time travel element, the chemistry between the actors, The COSTUMES! However, the characters (and some of the fanbase), no. I’ve tried reading the first book and I couldn’t stand it.
Don’t get me started on the storyline in S5 with the baby!! I had to take a break and stop watching it after that episode. Actually there were a few moments in S5 where I just questioned my sanity for sitting through it.
Which baby?
Maybe the baby they find in a cabin when they are on their way somewhere. The mother leaves her husband who had a stroke laying in his filth in the loft because he abuses her and the baby isn’t his. She abandons the baby and C&J take it into town and leave it with a family and tell them where they got it and that everything the husband had (I think he was a trader) is the baby’s so they’ll take care of it. Jamie asks Claire if she wants to keep it. It would be like their do over Bree.
What fluffy_bunny said. Also the baby was mixed race so in colonial US she’s all but guaranteed to be enslaved no matter what papers they left her with. There’s absolutely nothing she could do if those people decided to take her land.
I haven’t read the books so I don’t know if that’s in the books or not but I wanted to scream.
Am loving all these posts about Scotland 🙂 Making me homesick – luckily I will be in Edinburgh next week so fingers crossed the weather is nice.
I binged Outlander when the first 3 seasons were released on Netflix, I don’t have Starz and I won’t pay for a subscription. I absolutely loved the Jamie and Claire love story, even if Claire is very annoying and seems to get into trouble on purpose, trying to be all high and mighty as she applies her 20th century attitude to the 18th century. And of course there’s all the rape. Thank God I read some of the book synopses and knew about poor Jamie’s rape ahead of time, I fast forwarded through that scene and I will never watch it. I also knew about Brianna’s rape too beforehand, thought that one happened mostly offscreen. However, I was not prepared for Fergus and now I know about Claire’s rape at the end of season 5 which I haven’t seen yet as it has not been released on Netflix. It is incredibly problematic and I’m not sure why the showrunners insist on adhering to all of the rape plot points in the books. I watch because I enjoy the sets, the costumes, the premise, and for some of the characters (mostly for Jamie lol). But the storylines are very repetitive and the acting of the actress who plays Brianna is like a door, so wooden and flat.
I didn’t renew Starz for Season 5 of Outlander. I was obsessed in the beginning but I just couldn’t with the amount of rape that’s in the story. Yes it’s important to cover the stories of victims but it’s used so much in Outlander. I think it was after Brianna’s rape in season 4(?) that I had had it. I know the author defends it as a plot device and not just gratuitous like on Game of Thrones but it’s used as a plot device wayyyy too much. Is there a main character that doesn’t get raped? So far I count Jamie, Claire, Jenny, Fergus, young Ian and Brianna. There was also the young lady who Claire kind of looked after in Paris whose name I can’t remember. And Laoghaire wasn’t able to sleep with Jamie when they were briefly married because of what her previous husband did to her. That’s as far as I got in the books and show.
I also watched an interview of the author, Diana Gabaldon once who said she was so excited to be on set for Jamie’s rape scenes. I think something is wrong with her.
Jenny doesn’t actually get raped. BJR can’t get it up when he tries to assault her and she laughs at him.