Fans of the Outlander franchise have been waiting for far too long to get new content with this latest Droughtlander, both on the screen and on the page. The most recent fifth season of the Starz TV show ended more than a year ago, in early May of 2020. Meanwhile, the most recent eighth book in Diana Gabaldon’s beloved novel series, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, was published all the way back in 2014. In fact, no Outlander novel has been published since the TV show premiered. But there’s finally good news for fans of the show and the books.
The most immediate good news concerns the book series, which has been on hold for more than seven years now since the June 2014 publication of Written in My Own Heart’s Blood. The ninth book, called Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, is less than two months away from hitting bookshelves. The book will release on Tuesday, November 23, and EW reports that it will pick up where Written in My Own Heart’s Blood left off. And the upcoming 2021 release date isn’t even the only good news on the book front!
Diana Gabaldon is wasting no time in continuing her book series. In a Facebook post on September 25 hyping the upcoming release of Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, the author also dropped the bombshell that she “started work on Book Ten yesterday.” Yes, Gabaldon is already working on the tenth (and likely final) installment in her book series before the ninth has even been published. (Take note, George R.R. Martin!)
As for the show, it too is returning in the not-terribly-distant future. Outlander will return in early 2022 with new episodes for the first time since Season 5 ended on a heartbreaking note back in May 2020. Starz hasn’t announced an exact date just yet, but early 2022 at least indicates that it’ll be back before May, and the latest Droughtlander won’t have lasted for two full years.
The sixth season will have fewer episodes than originally expected (and will run as the shortest full season in Outlander history with eight episodes), but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for the story, and should mean that the post-production process shouldn’t take as long as it would for 12 or 13 episodes. Plus, Season 5 premiered back in February 2020, so it seems possible that Starz could be aiming for a similar date for Season 6. Either way, I’m going to assume that early 2022 means sooner rather than later.
While 2022 is still a ways off, the release window of early next year could also mean that more content for Season 6 will begin to release soon. A trailer would be more than welcome for some new Outlander content after such a long Droughtlander, and it would be fun if Starz released some footage ahead of Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone for an Outlander fix sooner than the next book releases. Whatever happens, the floodgates are finally opening!
