New information becoming available about Outlander’s prequel spinoff Outlander: Blood of My Blood makes me hopeful for the franchise’s future, especially considering how close we are to the end of its parent series. With the second part of Outlander season 7 returning to Starz in November 2024, only Outlander season 8 remains to be released, concluding Jamie and Claire’s story and promising to leave an Outlander-shaped hole in my heart. However, the most recent updates about Outlander: Blood of My Blood suggest an exciting return to the origins that can deliver on what the latest Outlander seasons have been missing.
Much has changed since Outlander season 1 first introduced Jamie and Claire, with plenty of characters not being part of the show anymore and new ones becoming central to the story. Claire and Jamie’s adventures brought them all over the world in Outlander seasons 1 to 7, letting them be part of revolutions and putting them in front of unbelievably demanding challenges that often separated them, only to let them reunite, stronger than ever. Still, the setting that initially drew many to Outlander is absent from recent seasons, making plenty of viewers including myself miss the show’s focus on Scotland.
Outlander’s Creators Know Exactly What’s Missing From Recent Seasons Of The Show
The Highlands & Scotland Are Sorely Missed In Outlander’s Latest Seasons
In its earliest seasons, Outlander was not only set mainly in Scotland but it also focused greatly on the political ramifications of Jamie and his compatriots’ fight against the English, offering a snapshot of a turbulent time in the Highlands while also focusing on Jamie and Claire’s blossoming relationship. Although Jamie’s Scottish identity is still a big part of Outlander’s story, and the characters with whom he and Claire settled in Fraser’s Ridge prove it, 1700s Scotland has not been an integral part of the story since Outlander season 3’s second half.
The lack of the Highlands and Scotland in general in Outlander season 4 to season 7 part 1 has been addressed by Outlander creator Ronald D. Moore in an interview at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, where he revealed to CinemaBlend how they were aware that viewers “missed the days of the Highlands, and some of those characters and some of that mythology.” Moore being an executive producer on the Outlander prequel and acknowledging what the viewers longed for gives me faith that the direction the Outlander franchise is taking will keep the viewers’ wishes in mind when developing new stories.
Outlander’s Blood Of My Blood Spinoff Will Return To The Original Series’ Roots
Its Setting 20 Years Before Outlander Season 1 Returns The Spinoff To Outlander’s Origins
Although not much is known about Outlander: Blood of My Blood’s story, its focus being on Jamie’s parents Brian and Ellen 20 years before Outlander began guarantees a return to the Highlands and plenty of twists and turns for the central couple. Jamie already revealed in Outlander season 1 how his parents’ relationship started as a forbidden romance that turned into a marriage in spite of their families’ objections. The little that is known about Ellen and Brian’s relationship hints at Outlander: Blood of My Blood retaining what made Outlander so enthralling with the challenges to Jamie and Claire’s romance.
Moore revealed at SDCC 2024 how much of Jamie’s family history in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander books wasn’t recounted in the Outlander series, but could inform the events of Outlander: Blood of My Blood. With the Outlander prequel also focusing on Claire’s parents Julie and Henry before they had her and in a period of great upheaval in and around WWI, Outlander: Blood of My Blood’s starting point could include the themes that made Outlander season 1 unforgettable, minus the time traveling. This could make Outlander: Blood of My Blood keep Outlander’s familiarity while also feeling completely different to the viewers.
The Outlander Spinoff Sounds Like Exactly What The Franchise Needs
Blood Of My Blood’s Setting & Focus Can Expand The Outlander Universe
Outlander spanning decades in multiple timelines and often keeping Jamie and Claire apart guaranteed viewers would be invested in their story to end well, or at least with the two lovers reunited. While everything Claire and Jamie survived and the uprisings they influenced were extremely interesting to watch, especially given Claire’s future knowledge and Jamie and Claire’s attempts to change history to ensure their survival, their separation from Scotland made Outlander an entirely different show from what it was at the beginning. Outlander: Blood of My Blood’s focus can instead bring back Outlander fans to where it all began.
Ronald D. Moore offered as a reason for Outlander’s prequel spinoff to be happening 20 years before the beginning of Outlander the fact that “it felt right that you could go back,” as it was “a great period to put [the spinoff] in and it could really bring people into the show again.” With Outlander being close to its end, a spinoff bringing it back to its Scotland origins could not only attract Outlander’s fans and new viewers alike but also entice Outlander: Blood of My Blood’s future viewers to pick up Outlander, had they not watched the original series.
This could benefit both Outlander and its prequel spinoff, enriching a universe already expanded considering all of Gabaldon’s books that aren’t part of the Outlander series. Moreover, were Outlander: Blood of My Blood to be successful, it would mean that Jamie and Claire could still be with viewers in spirit well past Outlander season 8 with the stories of their families being explored, making the series’ end less bittersweet.