Outlander ended its fourth season on a doozy of a cliffhanger back in January, and the wait is still on to see how the Frasers will recover from everything that happened to them after coming to 18th century America. Bits and pieces about Season 5 released earlier this year, with first a sneak peek at the set and the first official look of Jamie and Claire looking surprisingly happy, all things considered!
There's still no news of when Season 5 might officially debut, but Starz released a new video revealing the Frasers back at Fraser's Ridge, and that's not all. Take a look!
Apparently, just about the entire extended Fraser family makes it to Fraser's Ridge in the first chunk of Season 5! Young Ian probably won't be turning up any time soon, and it's not surprising to see that Jocasta Cameron didn't make the jaunt all the way up from River Run, even taking into account the unexpected revelation of her relationship with Murtagh.
Speaking of Murtagh, his fate was the subject of the cliffhanger, as Governor Tryon sent a message to Jamie, ordering him to raise a militia and hunt down Murtagh as leader of the Regulators. Of course it was always unlikely that Jamie would turn his beloved godfather in to the Brits, but given that Murtagh is long-dead by this point in Diana Gabaldon's source material, anything can really happen to him.
Apparently, Murtagh will make it back to the Ridge, along with Brianna and Roger with their youngster, as well as Fergus and Marsali with their child. Even Lizzie is still in the mix! Honestly, after all the rape and murder and heartbreak of Season 4, seeing the characters as a happy family on their own land is a relief.
The video does raise the question of a time jump. Outlander obviously is no stranger to toying with time, and the children who were just babies at the end of Season 4 look to be almost toddler age in the new video, although there's not a lot of clear footage of them.
Considering Outlander seems likely to cut a lot of the first portion of The Fiery Cross, a.k.a. the fifth book in the Outlander saga, that featured the children as young babies, it would make sense for a time jump to age them.
Cutting a big chunk of The Fiery Cross would naturally mean the show is continuing to deviate from book canon, but this behind-the-scenes video indicates that at least one scene could be pulled just about as straight from page to screen as is possible. In The Fiery Cross, Brianna takes Roger to teach him how to shoot as one of the skills he never had to pick up as a 20th century Scottish historian.
We can't say too much about the scene based on this brief footage, but Outlander does often include some of the most beloved and iconic scenes from the novels, even if they sometimes need to be tweaked a bit. Book readers may have a lot to look forward to with Season 5.
And Season 6, for that matter! Starz handed down a renewal for Seasons 5 and 6 before Season 4 even finished production, so the story isn't going to end any time soon. Perhaps Starz really will see Outlander to the very end of the book saga, depending on how much longer Diana Gabaldon intends to spin her story.
We'll have to wait and see when Outlander will debut its fifth season, but Netflix fans at least will soon have the option to relive some of the earlier days of the show. Outlander is coming to streaming later this month.
