It's been a long, long wait for Outlander Season 3, but new episodes of the Starz drama are coming this September. Ahead of the big premiere, some of the major cast and crew members gathered together on a stage at San Diego Comic-Con to talk a little bit about what is coming up, and if you've been wondering what the heck will go on with the Battle of Culloden, we have some answers for you: It's coming and it's coming very early on. According to series lead Tobias Menzies, we should start getting excited, because we can expect to see the big face-off between Jamie Frasier and Black Jack Randall. Menzies said:
Yes we do [see Culloden]. We basically begin the season at Culloden. And so, yes, we see the encounter at Culloden between Jamie and Black Jack. Actually, I think it will be surprising. Maybe it's not entirely what people expect from it, in keeping with what we've tried to do all along with the two.
The relationship between Jamie and Black Jack Randall has always been complicated. The two men have an intense dislike for one another, for fairly obvious reasons. They come from different political climates and opposite ends of the spectrum, and then there's the whole Black Jack Randall sodomizing Jamie thing. But Black Jack Randall is a fairly tortured character, and there's a need to be understood in him, too.
We're about to get into some book spoilers, so now's a great time to head out if you haven't read them. The third book in Diana Gabaldon's series Outlander opens with Jamie waking up after the Battle of Culloden and Jamie later has trouble recovering memories of what happened as he moves forward with his new life away from the battlefield. It's reassuring to know that we will get to see an encounter between Black Jack Randall and Jamie Frasier on the battlefield during Season 3 of Outlander, and we're pumped to hear it will be happening early on, as the Outlander TV series has had a penchant for changing around the sequence of the events in the books for the Starz show.
As for Outlander actor Sam Heughan, he said filming the new scene opposite his rival has been a long time coming. Everyone who signed on with Outlander is aware of the history of the time period explored in the series, not to mention the fact that Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger related to a Battle of Culloden survival notice. Finally getting to film the major event was appealing to most of the people on set.
We've talked about it for two seasons, it's time to show it. Everyone was really excited to film this part of the show, even our extras.
Tobias Menzies also confirmed how it felt to film the historically relevant scene, noting,
The whole history of the show is such a massive part of the story that we tell. It's the rich soil that we grow the whole thing out of. That Jacobite history is phenomenal. Shooting in these places, it makes our job incredibly easy.
Outlander aired its premiere right at the end of Friday's Comic-Con panel, and that presentation confirmed the Battle of Culloden will be a major part of Season 3 right off the bat. So, go ahead and start getting excited now. We only have a couple of months to wait before Droughtlander is over on September 10. In the meantime, check out what we know about the upcoming episodes.
