Outlander season 8: Release date speculation and latest news

The finale saw reunions, tricky surgery, death and a major cliffhanger relating to Claire (Caitríona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan), harking back to a tragic season 2 storyline.

The final episode saw Claire overhear Fanny singing I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside, the same song that Claire sang to her stillborn child Faith in the show's second season.

So, could Faith have lived? Well, it's the burning question we all have going into season 8 and the cast and team behind the show dig a little into it in a behind-the-scenes video, which you can watch below.

Talking about how that finale sets up the eighth season, Heughan told The Hollywood Reporter: "It’s a huge moment for them to find out that their daughter potentially lived, and now they have this grandchild in their life. It’s a great cliffhanger — one that I think book and non-book fans are going to be surprised by. I think it was beautifully done with the song.

"It’s interesting because even playing [Faith’s death] way back in season two, we played the truth of it; we had no idea ourselves. So it was a shock for us as actors reading it and learning about it, as it was for the characters.

"I think the thought process for Jamie is, 'How is it possible?' The elation, the happiness that, actually, it could be possible. And then, who is this young girl in front of us right now?"

Similarly, Balfe said of the surprise scene: "I just love it when you are given a scene and you read it, and it’s like, 'Ooh, that’s really good.' But in the playing of it, when the hairs on your arms are standing up, it’s pretty brilliant. Florrie [May Wilkinson] is so amazing. Every time we have a scene with her, you’re just so blown away by how brilliant she is.

"It’s such an interesting cliffhanger because it just opens up this whole other world of questions, which leads us so brilliantly into the next season. I think for Claire, it’s like her heart stops, her heart breaks and her heart sings — all at the same time."

With a teaser trailer for Blood of My Blood having just dropped, as well as the seventh season leaving fans with plenty of questions, fans are patiently waiting on news for when Outlander's final season will be released.

But what do we know about Outlander season 8 so far? Read on for everything you need to know.

Outlander season 8 release date speculation

A release date for Outlander season 8 has not been confirmed just yet.

However, production on the final season has wrapped, with series star Sam Heughan paying an emotional tribute to his long stint on the show. Sharing a carousel of behind-the-scenes photos from the past eight seasons, Heughan wrote: “11 Years. 8 seasons. 101 Episodes @outlander_starz. What a journey. So many memories, incredible people I have been fortunate to work with and now can call friends."

Fans often have to go through a period affectionately known as 'Droughtlander' meaning it could be some time between the end season 7 and 8. We also don't know whether or not the final season will follow suit like season 7 and be split into two.

Seeing as the release window for Blood of my Blood has just been confirmed as summer 2025, we could potentially be looking at a late 2025 or early 2026 release for Outlander season 8.

Seeing as season 7 was split into two parts, we could very well be anticipating a staggered release for the final eighth season also.

News of Outlander ending with season 8 was announced back in January 2023, also confirming the release of prequel series Blood of my Blood.

Who will star in Outlander season 8?

It's hard to say just yet who exactly will be appearing in Outlander season 8. However, we would assume that the core cast of characters would reprise their roles for the final season.

Seeing as season 7 ended with Jamie and Claire taking in young Fanny (Florrie May Wilkinson) after the death of her sister Jane (Silvia Presente), we would also assume that Fanny is a recurring character in the show's eighth season.

We would expect the following cast members to return for Outlander season 8.

• Caitríona Balfe as Claire Randall Fraser
• Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser
• Richard Rankin as Roger Wakefield MacKenzie
• Sophie Skelton as Brianna Randall Fraser MacKenzie
• John Bell as Young Ian Murray
• David Berry as Lord John Grey
• Charles Vandervaart as William Ransom
• Izzy Meikle-Small as Rachel Hunter
• Joey Phillips as Dr Denzell Hunter
• Florrie May Wilkinson as Fanny

Season 7 also ended with a surprise appearance from Master Raymond (Dominique Pinon), but it remains to be seen whether he'll be returning for anymore scenes. When asking whether he could confirm if Master Raymond will return in season 8, co-showrunner and executive producer Matthew B Roberts told TVLine: "I cannot. And I don’t even know if I saw him in Season 7. Who’s to know what happened?"

However, it has been confirmed that season 8 will mark the introduction of some new characters.

It's been announced that Kieran Brew (House of the Dragon) will portray Captain Charles Cunningham, a retired British soldier, Frances Tomelty (Catastrophe) will appear as his mother Elspeth Cunningham, and Carla Woodcock (Such Brave Girls) will play Amaranthus Grey, a new member of the Grey family.

What will Outlander season 8 be about?

It's hard to say exactly what Outlander season 8 will be about, especially since author Diana Gabaldon was still working on her tenth and final Outlander novel when season 8 was being worked on.

Season 7 ended with Roger being reunited with his family and him and Brianna considering where (or when) to travel to, discussing the possibility of returning to Jamie and Claire's time period. The Frasers also take in Fanny after the death of her sister Jane, but the finale saw Claire start to question whether Fanny could be their biological grandchild and whether their stillborn daughter Faith had actually lived after all.

Thankfully, all our burning questions will get answers in season 8, with Roberts telling TVLine: "There’s a blurb in Book 9 that gave us the idea of, ‘Hey, what if?’ And we ran with it. You’ll get the answers in Season 8.

"Obviously it’s a cliffhanger, but hopefully we tie it up in a bow with the answers and the explanations and what happens and the ramifications of all that on Jamie and Claire."

RadioTimes.com previously posed the question of how the series will wrap up in light of the lack Outlander's final book to executive producer Maril Davis.

She said: "We’ve talked to Diana a bit. Once we figure out how the actual ending is going to be – which we don’t totally have yet – I think we’ll run it by her and make sure she’s OK with it."

She continued: "I’ve asked her about things that we want to do to make sure she’s OK. The last thing we want to do is step on Diana’s toes, she’s been so lovely and supportive of this series and so thrilled with how it’s gone. We want to repay her and be respectful of her, do her books justice.

"But also, she’s always felt like the books are hers and the show is something different and I love that about her, she gives us that freedom also to take chances and risks and do things slightly differently."

Davis added: "We will of course run things by her, it will have to be slightly different, obviously, because she’s ending it and she hasn’t figured that out yet - what that it is - and we’re going to have to end the TV show. I’m excited about it but we have a few surprises up our sleeve.”

More recently, Gabaldon herself warned viewers not to expect a final season that resembles her final book, saying: "There's only so much I can say about the show, but what I can say is that it really won't resemble the end of the book series."

She went on: "Coming into Season 8, the show-runners have/had only ten episodes (rather than the sixteen, say, in Season One)--and material from THREE WHOLE BOOKS to fit into that. Season 7 ends (roughly) with AN ECHO IN THE BONE, leaving WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART'S BLOOD, GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE, and BOOK TEN almost untouched.

"Now, in normal circumstances – one book per season – they can fit roughly 10% of the book's content into the show. How much of the (VERY roughly speaking) 1,200,000 words of those three books do you think they can get into ten hours of television?

"Obviously, they're going to have to cherry-pick some prime scenes/threads to film, and try to fit them into a framework that makes sense for one season, and that they can bring to a reasonably satisfactory conclusion."

Speaking about what's to come in season 8 and whether they'll be digging into Gabaldon's novel, Go Tell the Bees, Roberts also said: "Yeah — the brief was: Nothing that doesn’t affect Jamie and Claire gets in. It’s gotta affect Jamie and Claire.

"All the main characters do — they’re a part of it — but that’s the drive. There’s so many aspects. I mean, they’re all big books. There’s things where you kind of go over here, and you go over here — that’s what makes the books so readable and fun. But when you have 10 episodes, you have to stay literally on track."

Is there a trailer for Outlander season 8?

Not yet!

But there was a cheery announcement video with the Outlander cast for season 8 that was released a year ago. You can watch that below.

Outlander season 7 is available to stream on MGM+ in the UK and is also available to stream on Starz in the US. You can buy Diana Gabaldon's books on Amazon.

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