After seven seasons of time travel, revolution, and the occasional supernatural detour, Outlander is finally inching toward its end — but not before taking a few more long, blood-soaked, heart-torn detours first. Season 7 is the show’s biggest yet, both in scope and body count, and as executive producer Meryl Davis tells me, that’s by design. “Every season I say it’s the biggest one we’ve done, and it’s always true,” she laughs. “This year we’re covering parts of three books — six, seven, and eight — so there was just a lot to cram in.”
It’s also the first full season back since the pandemic shortened Season 6, meaning the cast and crew came in with pent-up energy and a mountain of storylines to untangle. Davis calls it “a heavy lift,” but adds, “Everyone was energized. We filmed for a year, but it didn’t feel like a year.”
Among the fresh faces dropped into this historical hurricane are Joey Phillips and Izzy Meikle-Small as Denzel and Rachel Hunter — Quaker siblings and medics whose pacifism gets tested amid the Revolution. “We’re pacifists, so obviously with the backdrop of war that’s a big point of conflict,” says Meikle-Small. “Rachel’s devout and loyal but also flirty and curious — she’s been living with her brother forever, suddenly surrounded by men, and she’s like, ‘It’s my time.’”
Phillips laughs and picks up the thread. “They’ve lived peaceful lives, and now Denny’s joining the Continental Army as a surgeon. He believes liberty is a gift from God, but there’s guilt too — he’s bringing his sister into this world of violence. They’re both figuring out what they believe about goodness, about faith.”
Faith and contradiction have always been Outlander’s bread and butter, though now it’s fighting to keep its ideals amid the chaos of the American Revolution. Davis insists that grounding the story through character is what keeps it from turning into pure period spectacle. “Every battle we show is through one of our characters’ eyes. That’s what makes it personal. You don’t care about war unless you care about who’s in it.”
For David Berry, who returns as Lord John Grey, that personalization comes with a dose of fatherly exhaustion — both on and off camera. “What I really enjoyed this season was being a dad,” he says. “I’ve got a son in real life, so to bring that into Lord John’s relationship with William was a joy. And like any parent, sometimes you’re proud, sometimes you’re disappointed. It’s exhausting either way.”
That “son” would be William, now played by Charles Vandervaart, who enters the show with both an inheritance and an identity crisis. “He doesn’t really know who he is,” Vandervaart says. “He’s grown up privileged, but there’s frustration in him — with his family, with his place in the world. He’s naive but wants to prove himself, and war changes him fast.”
Davis admits that balancing all of these threads — the returning cast, the new blood, the historical accuracy — is a constant chess game. “We start each season in the writers’ room putting up all the tentpole moments and asking, ‘What can’t we lose?’ Then you realize: a lot. There’s always something you wish you could have kept. But this year we thought it might be our last, so we just threw everything in.”
Of course, it isn’t their last — not yet. Starz announced that Season 8 will be the final run. For longtime cast members like John Bell, who’s played Young Ian since Season 3, that inevitability has started to sink in. “It’ll be bittersweet,” he says. “We’ve given our hearts and souls to this for years. It’ll be sad to say goodbye, but we’re lucky we get to end it right.”
Still, Bell hints that peace might finally be on the horizon for his perpetually tortured character. “There’s been so much inner turmoil for Ian — love lost, not belonging anywhere — but yeah, I think there’s some peace coming. Maybe.”
Season 7 also marks one of the show’s most emotionally intense stretches yet, and not just because of the literal amputations (“I was gagging off-camera,” Meikle-Small admits). Berry jokes about trying to leave the emotion on set but concedes it sticks. “You put yourself through a lot. You can’t always shake it off. I do try to take souvenirs home though — I definitely took the haircut.”
And then there’s the music, the show’s other secret weapon. “We’ve got a beautiful version of Ave Maria sung by Caitríona Balfe,” says Davis, “and of course, Sinead O’Connor doing the theme song this season — that was a dream.” The producers had initially tossed around a few names, including Annie Lennox, but Bear McCreary, the show’s composer, had a direct line to O’Connor’s manager. “She really connected with Claire’s story,” Davis recalls. “When I heard her voice on the theme, I just thought — man, that’s it.”
It’s fitting, then, that O’Connor’s haunting tone underscores a season built on ghosts, faith, and the question of whether you can change the past — or yourself. Davis laughs when I ask if she’d time-travel to fix history. “I think about it all the time. Like, would I go back and kill Hitler? But Outlander teaches us history finds a way. Even if you try to change it, it happens anyway.”
Maybe that’s why fans stick with this show: it believes in the mess of being human. War, love, trauma, and tenderness all knotted together — and you can’t fix one without tugging the others loose. Seven seasons in, Outlander still knows that the real story isn’t time travel or history or even destiny. It’s how you live through it.
Watch the interview above and then check out the trailer below.
