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Outlander Season Three premieres September 10 on Starz, but critics got a sneak peek at the new season at TCA. Season Three will open with Jamie and Claire separated by centuries. Jamie must face down the legendary Battle of Culloden, while Claire has to raise their daughter with another man in the 20th Century. Stars Caitriona Balfe, Tobias Menzies, Sophie Skelton, and Richard Rankin were on hand, along with showrunner Ronald D. Moore and Executive Producer Maril Davis. Sam Heughan joined the panel later via satellite. (Warning: spoilers for non-book readers!)
Starz unveiled a brand new video hyping Jamie and Claire’s star-crossed romance in Season Three. Showrunner Ronald D. Moore explained that he looked at Jamie’s storyline in the book Voyager to help inform how they laid out the season. Jamie’s journey could be broken down into about five parts, from the Battle of Culloden to the moments leading up to the Print Shop. From there Moore broke down Claire’s life with Frank and Brianna to create a parallel narrative. “You’re traveling through 20 years of their lives,” said Moore. “So you focus on the major moments of drama.”
The Battle of Culloden kicks off the third season and Sam Heughan said the historical event made for a “great start to the season.” Tobias Menzies explained that they took a “strange” approach to it and that it marks the end of the Black Jack/Jamie storyline. “They meet on the battlefield in Culloden. It’s almost in flashback…you get fragments of the encounter,” he said. “I like the way it came out. It’s a strange part fight, part dance, part embrace.”
Spoilers, but season three sees two characters’ approaching the end of their respective storylines – and both are played by Menzies. When asked if Menzies was done with the show for good, Moore teased: “The Randall family tree is very broad.” He added, “You never say never. There could be flashbacks, we are a time travel show, so you never know.”
Maril Davis joked he could come back as a female member of the Randall clan, which Menzies loved. Balfe exclaimed: “Daisy Randall!” So stay tuned.
Heughan said, “I think this season in particular feels very strong. Every episode has an individual theme and the characters, they grow up, they change.” Balfe said that when she approached her character’s aging, she wanted to focus on how time changes you, over cosmetic “crows’ feet.” She watched specific actresses at different points in their film careers to track how Claire might change. “People don’t change that much,” she said, “but certain things change about them. How they carry themselves.” At the very end of the panel she joked that they had thought about a “monobrow,” and Heughan added, “I’d like to see that!”
When asked if Outlander could suffer from a similar situation as Game of Thrones, which has overtaken the original book series, Moore said, “I cannot imagine a situation where we catch up with Diana Gabaldon.” Before Heughan was plugged in via satellite, the panel was asked how far they were in Gabaldon’s books. Balfe explained she likes to read a book along with the season at hand, so she’s in the middle of Book 4. Menzies has only gotten halfway through A Dragonfly in Amber, Sophie Skelton has already finished Book 4, and Richard Rankin was through the fifth installment. Davis has read them all and Moore joked, “I’m waiting for the graphic novel.”
Decider also sat down with Caitriona Balfe and Tobias Menzies, and Ronald D. Moore and Maril Davis before the panel to talk about the season. Look out for those interviews closer to the Season Three premiere.
Outlander returns to Starz on September 10.
