Foreigner was renewed for an eighth season just months before the TV show’s seventh season premieres this year. Starz, a premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lionsgate, has confirmed that Season 8 will be the series’ final season.
While a season 8 release date has yet to be set, speculation indicates that filming will begin in 2024 due to scheduling conflicts with the main cast. As a result, the final season will likely debut around 2025.
Meanwhile, the seventh season is set to premiere in summer 2023, meaning the 16-episode season will air between June and September.
Surprisingly, the Fraser family’s adventures will continue even as Outlander comes to an end. That’s because, in addition to announcing the show’s renewal (and eventual cancellation), Starz’s original programming head Kathryn Busby also formally announced the show’s prequel series. The prequel, titled Outlander: Blood of My Blood, is rumored to follow the blossoming passion between Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie, the parents of Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). Rumors of a prequel first surfaced in February last year and were verified in August.
Season 8 of Outlander will be “excited to continue,” according to Starz producer Kathryn Busby.
While giving an update on the ten episodes of Season 8, Busby stated:
“For over a decade, Outlander has captured the hearts of people around the world and we are thrilled to bring Claire and Jamie’s epic love story to a dignified conclusion. But before we close this chapter, there is still much of their passionate story to tell over the course of an additional 26 episodes, as well as much more to discover about this dynamic universe and its birth story. We are thrilled to be working with Matthew, Maril and Ronald again and can’t wait to see where their compelling story takes us next.”
According to reports, the final season will be based on Diana Gabaldon’s eighth novel in the series, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood. Published in 2014, the novella is set in June 1778, when Jamie Fraser “returns from the grave to learn that his close friend has married his wife.” The official summary of the book continues:
“To his surprise, the ninth Earl of Ellesmere realizes he is the illegitimate son of the newly resurrected Jamie Fraser (a rebel and Scottish outlaw!)” and Jamie’s cousin Ian Murray realizes his new cousin is in love with his Quaker groom .”
What is our current knowledge about Blood of My Blood?
Outlander: Blood of My Blood will feature ten episodes, with Matthew B. Roberts serving as writer and executive producer. The program, according to Roberts, is “essentially a love story”. He went on to say:
“It will explore how far a person can go to discover love in a period when love is seen as a luxury and weddings are entered into on purpose, often for political or financial gain.”
The news doesn’t stop at season 8. #Outlander: Blood of My Blood is officially green-lit! https://t.co/knuMbE3K9f pic.twitter.com/eaUw4K3trN
— Outlander (@Outlander_STARZ) January 19, 2023
The planned series is produced by Sony Pictures Television, Left Bank Pictures, Moore’s Tall Ship Productions and Story Mining & Supply Company.
