Outlander is currently in production for Season 3, and there series has a slew of devoted fans. Many of those fans have read the books by Diana Gabaldon that Starz's Outlander is based on, and those fans often look forward to seeing big scenes from the books play out on the small screen. During Season 1, one of those scenes should have involved watching Clare fight off a pack of wolves, but it didn't. Recently Caitriona Balfe revealed that the reason Outlander cut the wolves during Season 1 had to do with a dog mauling another actor on set.
During production on Season 1, Tim McInnerny, who played Father Bain on the series, had to film a scene where he was attacked by a bunch of dogs. While the dogs were supposed to faux maul the actor, instead, he actually got attacked. Speaking at Emerald City Comic-Con (via Vulture), Caitriona Balfe was quite adamant that the experience was a disaster, noting:
He actually got attacked by dogs. It was quite horrific. They were like, 'We're nixing the wolves.'
If you've ever read the books, you should know that the wolves scene was one of Claire's biggest moments, at least in terms of action. We often get to see her in perilous situations or saving lives with her healing abilities, but Jamie's the one who is often kicking ass and taking names rather than Claire. The wolves scene is cool in the books because she fends a giant wolf off all on her own after Jamie kicks her out of prison. She ends up killing the wolf capably, but it obviously could have been a really difficult scene to film, and I'm not sure Outlander's budget is high enough to justify a CGI wolf.
Regardless of the biggest reason behind the decision, the show ended up cutting the scene. It's not the only memorable book scene that Outlander has changed or completely cut for the show, but the reason for this one getting cut is at least easy to understand, although it's still a pretty wild reason for opting not to film a huge scene. Other than cutting scenes, Outlander has sometimes shifted scenes and timelines to accommodate the small screen, as happened at the beginning of Season 2 when we flashed to 1948 before getting to the traditional action from Diana Gabaldon's books.
There are sure to be some surprises in the upcoming third season of Outlander, which is anticipated to hit the schedule in September. For now, we do know a little about Season 3, and you can take a look at what's coming with our what we know guide. Or take a look at our midseason TV premiere schedule to see what is coming up.
