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Starz’s Outlander has dragged Jamie and Claire Fraser through the wringer across the globe and through time. Their love story is a saga spanning the globe and two different centuries. It’s also made a mess of their family trees. In early 2026, Outlander will play out its final season after eight seasons and 11 years. Can it stick the landing? Many shows have tried, and many have failed. Because of the show’s past successes, who could blame fans for thinking the Outlander producers will try to top what they’ve already done. For co-showrunner Matthew B. Roberts, it was important for the series to stay within itself and not to take the show into a direction that was unrecognizable. 

“I think the idea for the last season was to not try to top everything we’ve done,” Roberts told their Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025. “Just do a really good season of Outlander and make it work, make sure the stories work, and give the characters time to do what they do well. They love; they spend time together. They deal with the conflicts in front of them. Instead of trying to make it something it wasn’t, just do Outlander. I think we accomplished that and hopefully (the fans) will feel the same way.” 

The Outlander show has already raced past Diana Gabaldon’s novels. Her 10th and final book is scheduled to be finished in 2027.  We’ve seen how that might have contributed to Game of Thrones tripping at their finish line. We have reasons to believe this will be a different result. Gabaldon is said to be a major creative consultant in the writer’s room, as always, but she has already told Roberts and Ronald D. Moore the ending she’s writing for the novel. Gabaldon is writing episode 809 and co-writing the series finale, episode 810. 

“As [co-showrunners] Matt and Ron [Moore] said before, we’ve sort of surpassed the books at this point and so the writers have done such an incredible job of just kind of keeping that nostalgia, but also just injecting some stuff that you just don’t expect,” explained Sophie Skelton, who plays Brianna Ellen Randall Fraser MacKenzie. 

“I think the main thing is that you’ve got to prepare to be unprepared. We’re trying to top an amalgamation of amazing stories. The characters have been through pretty much everything you can imagine, so we’re just going to be surprised.

“I think day to day, you’d be like, ‘oh this is just another day at work,” Sam Heughan shared. “We’ve been doing this for 11 years. But then other days you’d be like, ‘this is the last time I’m going to work with this person, or put on this costume or whatever. It made the last season very charged, but that adds to this very dramatic storyline anyway. It’s more Outlander, just a mega XL version.”

Understandably, production on the last season has been an emotional roller coaster. Many tears were shed, even in scenes that didn’t call for them. The most tears shed were by producer Marlin Davis who had to announce when an actor wrapped on the series for the last time.

“I have seen the last episode and I feel like no matter what happens, we’re all sad it’s over,” said Davis. 

“That will never go away, but I, as a fan, was very satisfied.”

The final season of Outlander will air in early 2026, while its prequel, Blood of My Blood premieres August 8 on the Starz network.  

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