Outlander Video Takes Us Behind The Scenes Of Ronald Moore's New Starz Drama

While fans of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series convene for a retreat in Seattle this weekend, Starz has been gracious enough to share a new look at Ronald D. Moore's adaptation of the series, which is set to make its premium cable debut later this summer. "We love these books too," Ronald Moore says, in the new behind-the-scenes video for Outlander. "We're not here to destroy this work, we're here to honor it."

Those words are likely to be of some comfort to fans, whose hopes are high that Outlander will live up to the books. And of course, we all hope that Outlander will be the next great series from Ronald D. Moore, who's known for (re)creating Battlestar Galactica. As you may have noticed from the latest video for Outlander, which shows us some footage from the show and has Ronald D. Moore and some of the cast speaking from the set, this series is pretty limited on sci-fi, with the general exception of the time travel element, of course. The story is more of a period drama, which centers on Claire Randall, a World War II combat nurse who's on vacation in Scotland with her husband when she finds herself thrown back through time to 18th century Scotland.

This new look at the show gives us a peek at Claire covered in blood, which is likely a glimpse of her healing efforts during the war...

War

The video actually jumps back and forth to show us scenes from Claire's present day (the 1940s), where she's married to Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies) and also offers glimpses of her new present, which is far in the past. That's where she meets the gallant young warrior, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). Check out the sparks between them...

looks gif

Yes, things will get complicated for Claire pretty quickly when she arrives in 18th century Scotland, as she's paired up with Jamie while also trying to figure out how to get back to her own time. The book follows Claire's perspective, and from what Ron Moore says, it sounds like the TV show will follow along those lines. "We're going to try to convince you that this really happened to this woman," Moore says. "That here's a character that you should care about and follow her as she goes on this extraordinary adventure."

Extraordinary indeed, complete with kilts and broadswords!

The video also gives us some glimpses of just how incredible the backdrop of this series really is, with the picturesque Scotland serving as the setting for both the past and the present.

Scotland

18th century Scotland seems to suit Claire just fine...

Claire Scotland

But will she fit in there? Based on the last line of the video, which has a man telling Claire, "For a woman, you do ask a fair amount of questions," maybe not so much, but her unapologetic "So i've been told" response suggests she's ok with that.

As mentioned, there's an Outlander Retreat happening for book fans this weekend in Seattle, as they celebrate arrival of Diana Gabaldon's latest Outlander novel. Meanwhile, Starz has the series, which is based on the first book in that novel, set to arrive on Saturday, August 9. Check out the previously released trailer for Outlander here.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.