“Season 7, Part B is honestly is one of my favorite endings or parts of a season,” declares “Outlander” star Sam Heughan, who’s joined by co-star Caitriona Balfe to promote the highly anticipated return of the fantasy romance saga next month. For our recent webchat he adds, “It really is very, very strong and I think you really see at the heart of it, this amazing relationship that they have to fight for, but that has grown and has foundations that are wider than the ocean.” Watch our video interview above.
The show’s 16-episode seventh season is based on “An Echo in the Bone” and “Written in My Own Blood,” the seventh and eighth installments in acclaimed author Diana Gabaldon’s series of fantasy novels. The season is split in two parts, with the first part (colloquially referred to as Season 7A) concluding way back in August 2023 and the remaining eight episodes (i.e. Season 7B) premiering Friday, Nov. 22 at midnight ET on demand and on the Starz app and streaming platforms. It will debut linearly on Starz that evening at 8/7c. New episodes will then premiere weekly at the same times.
Season 7B sees Claire (Balfe), Jamie (Heughan) and young Ian (John Bell) departing the colonies for their homeland, marking a return to Scotland for the first time since Season 3. The couple will find their marriage “tested like never before” as “painful secrets” are exposed, Starz teased. Meanwhile, Roger (Richard Rankin) and Brianna (Sophie Skelton) battle new enemies across time. The upcoming second half of the season also boasts the return of fan favorites Jenny (with Kristin Atherton replacing Laura Donnelly in the role), Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek), Brian Fraser (Andrew Whipp), Dougal MacKenzie (Graham McTavish), Ian Murray (Steven Cree), Joan MacKimmie (Layla Burns) and Laoghaire Fraser (Nell Hudson). In addition to the show’s returning cast, several new actors have joined the show, like Loria Obianyo as Mercy Woodcock, Rod Hallett as Benedict Arnold and Chris Fulton as Rob Cameron.
Given all the loss and heartbreak that Claire and Jamie have endured over the years, Balfe maintains that the series is still at its core “fearlessly romantic” while also evolving into something even deeper. “I think it’s both. Each season and every year that we see these characters live with each other, it deepens, it gets stronger, it becomes more mature, but I don’t think you lose the fearless romanticism with that,” Balfe says. “They are as deeply in love, as deeply passionate as they were in Season 1. It’s just manifest slightly differently. We always try and find new ways to tell our story. Through the romance of it all, or whether they’re fighting, whether they’re making love, whatever it is, we want to try and find new ways of showing where they’re at in their lives. I think that’s one of the beautiful things about telling a story in such a long running show.”
Source: goldderby.com