Outlander fans are eagle-eyed observers, and it looks like they might have figured out that ending Heughan is pushing for.
As we inch closer to the premiere of Outlander Season 7, Part 2, fans are also getting antsy about the series’ ending in season 8. Currently, the series is filming the final season in Scotland. The show won’t adapt all of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series — it has too much ground to cover, and she’s still working on the final book — but it’s not known exactly how the ending will be different.
Outlander star Sam Heughan, who plays Jamie Fraser, has been pretty vocal about wanting a “different ending” for the series, and how he pushed for a particular direction when it came to the series’ final season. Gabaldon has already published nine of the 10 planned Outlander books, but there are still more coming. So we have a ‘show ends before the books are finished’ situation, which to some recalls what happened with HBO’s Game of Thrones.
How will Outlander end as a series? And what clues do fans have about it?
While speaking with The Herald about Outlander’s final season, Heughan shared he had been planting the seeds for a finale that would satisfy the fans. This has been going on over the years, and I have to say, I admire the hustle, especially in the name of the fans.
Apparently, Outlander was originally meant to end with Season 7, but Heughan “didn’t want to finish without finishing the story,” which ultimately led to the cast and crew “going back to do one more season,” according to The Express. “I want to finish the story, not only for myself but for the fans. It wouldn’t feel satisfactory to just end it, left in the air.”
The lead actor is aware that there is still going to be story that will be left untold as Gabaldon is still finishing up the vook series, however, he still wants to give the television show the ending it deserves. “We will have to end it some way. Perhaps not a way that the books end it. I am pushing for a different ending,” he said.
Heughan is aware that, like all finales, this one may not give everyone what they are looking for, including himself. “I don’t think I am going to get what I want,” Heughan shared. He went on to say that the finale “is never going to be satisfactory for everyone” but hopefully it will give fans “some sort of finality.”
Naturally, fans are all over Reddit sharing their thoughts on this. “It can’t be exactly book 9’s ending as it has a sort of cliffhanger I think it will be a happy ending, whole family together on the ridge, with the little new addition; William knocking on the door and reconciled with Jamie. Jamie grudgingly reconciled with John as well,” one said in a thread asking how fans think the show will end.
Another fan shared: “I’m thinking the ending will be something wholesome and calm, after all the storms they’ve been through. We know they’re not going to kill off Jamie and Claire. I hope it still makes me sob, tbh.”
Honestly, it could be anything, just as long as fans feel a sense of closure and happiness for the love story they have been following for almost a decade now. We just want an ending that sticks, and with Heughan advocating for it, I think that’s what we’ll get.
Tune in to watch the premiere of Outlander Season 7, Part 2 on STARZ on Friday, November 22.