Looking Back at 2017, and Looking Ahead. Happy New Year from Outlander Behind The Scenes

What a great year it’s been for Outlander. Let’s look back, as we ring in a new year…

A year ago, Matt Roberts was looking out his window, reading Drums of Autumn in preparation for Season 4, and also writing the Season 3 finale with Toni Graphia, which he of course also directed. Wow. It’s amazing what this cast and crew has accomplished. Aren’t we so lucky???

https://twitter.com/TheMattBRoberts/status/813774244408688640

Here are Sam and Cait, in now recognizable Season 3 makeup and garb, wishing us all happy holidays last year…

January 2017:

Awards season included a Golden Globes nomination for Cait. Caitriona has been nominated for a Golden Globe (along with Tobias in 2016), for three years running (’16, ’17, and now ’18). The show was also nominated for Best TV Series, Drama in 2016, for Season 1.  Related posts: Golden Globes Hits a Nerve ; Cait at the Globes 

Some casting news was released (and leaked) last January, including: Emma Campbell-Jones (Mary McNab), Gary Young (Mr. Willoughby), and Charlie Hiett (Capt Leonard) -all of whom did fabulous jobs in their roles. Related posts: Mary McNab Cast; Mr Willoughby is That You?DG on Mr Willoughby…; Charlie Hiett

  

Sam and Cait took a Q&A break during filming of Episodes 306 and 307 in Edinburgh last Jan. During this Q&A Sam actually took the challenge of wearing a corset for multiple days, and I don’t think he’s followed through on that one, has he??? ?. Sam and Cait Q&A (right click and unmute if you get no sound!)

February:

Sam and Cait attended awards parties, Cait won the Oscar Wilde award, and Diana, Cait, and Outlander (accepted by Toni and Maril) were awarded WIN awards. Related posts: Outlander Awards.

March:

Caitriona and Sam appeared at Emerald City Comic Con in March. I believe this was Cait’s first fan convention. I attended and covered the panel: Sam and Cait at ECCC.

Later in March, the cast and crew headed to South Africa for the filming of Episodes 309-313; Diana paid a visit to set and enjoyed touring with her husband in SA. Related posts: Diana in South Africa.; More DG in SA 

April:

In early April, Diana was still in South Africa working, touring, and imitating gnu’s (hee hee). In the photo below she is editing Besieged, a new short story about Lord John Grey which was released as part of the Seven Stones to Stand or Fall collection.

In an April Q&A Maril let us know that she was very excited for us to meet the new S3 characters of Young Ian (her favorite after Jamie and Claire -mine too), Marsali, Fergus, etc.

I have to agree with her – she and the casting team did their usual brilliant job for S3, and the actors all delivered…

She confirmed turtle soup (great scene), and Caitriona shared a turtle soup filming wound ?. Now that we’ve seen it, we get the picture!

Ron is a HUGE San Francisco Giants fan, and he did a Q&A on the way to a Giants game, (they played the Colorado Rockies that day)…

Digression: In the Outlander Effect Continues realm, my husband actually used to work for the SF Giants selling season tickets, back when we were not even married yet, and they were at Candlestick Park. In fact, I used to work in the back ticket office sometimes for extra money on the weekends since he was at the park anyway. Great memories. I saw baseball legend Willie Mays many times at Candlestick Park, as he is Barry Bonds’ godfather and used to come around a lot to mentor him and to just be around baseball. I watched Barry Bonds practice and play many times. They looked like this back then…

  and here is a recent shot…  

Notable in Ron’s Q&A was that the Culloden battle scenes were his favorites in S3 and that he thinks David Berry rocks as LJG (I think we can all agree on that)…

Also in April, we got our first glimpse of Older Jamie, and the Season 3 trailer was released… Related posts: S3 Trailer

Another big moment that month: Matt completed the finale script for Season 3…

https://twitter.com/TheMattBRoberts/status/850728878838611968

Diana gave us LOTS of interesting tidbits in an April Q&A, including: Claire showed up on Diana’s third day of researching and writing Outlander, and DG had no idea Claire was a time traveler when she first showed up. The characters very much took on a life of their own. She also confided that Master Raymond will get his own book, and probably Frank too at some point. She reiterated that we will find out about the ghost of Jamie (from S1 in the show) in the very last ? book (which she has said will be Book 10). Diana Delayed in Toronto Q&A.

May:

In May, Season 4 casting began, with Rollo being the first actor(s) cast… Related posts: Rollo is cast

Diana visited Scotland and announced that she would be a grandma soon. Related posts: DG in Scotland

Caitriona did a stuck in traffic in South Africa Q&A and told us her most challenging parts of filming S3 in South Africa were her new costars… now we know all about the ants ? ? ??‍♀️(aggghhhhhhhh), goats, SNAKE, and I love that she put a turtle in there. Was there a dog? And a… baseball cap? ? What is that anyway?

Cait also said that Father Fogden and precious Elias Pound were among her favorite characters in S3…

June: 

Seven Stones hit the stores…

A fan lobby for Outlander celeb fan Lou Diamond Philips to be cast in S4 happened… Lou in S4

Lots of cast gathered in NYC for Outlander in the City, hosted by Outlander Homepage and crew, which I attended and covered: Outlander In The City

Also in the end of June, Season 3 filming wrapped in South Africa, Woohoo ? (more about that in a minute).

Diana was happy with the final product…

And Outlander won The Saturn Awards Best Fantasy TV Series award – Toni and Maril accepted…

Wrapping up June, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Mr. Steven Cree and his illustrious sidekick, Hushpuppy – Steven Cree OutlanderBTS Interview

July:

In July, Diana came to Denver along with our Bonnie Prince, Andrew Gower. They attended the Denver Comic Con… more on that later.

And the long awaited and anticipated Season 3 premiere date was announced on July 11th – exciting day!

A bunch of our cast attended the San Diego Comic Con, where fans were treated to an advanced viewing of Episode 301! Related posts: SDCC Gang; SDCC Highlight Vid; SDCC Full Vid; SDCC Updates; Rik & Sophie SDCC

Also in July, Sam did a Q&A with lots of new Q’s and A’s – to see the full list: Sam Q&A  

Your best quality? Stubbornness – you’ve got to be pretty strong-willed in my business.

And your worst? The same. Being stubborn doesn’t always help.

That’s a wise soul, to already know your gift is also your curse at age 37! 

And finally, in July Diana welcomed first grandbaby, little Santiago Douglas into her life…

August:

In August, location scouting for Season 4 was well underway… the Production, Costume, and Writing teams literally took no break between Seasons 3 and 4. I hope they’re all very much enjoying a loooong Christmas break. They deserve it.

https://twitter.com/TheMattBRoberts/status/894805426558173184

Tobias was named best performer of the year by Flavorwire…

and Ron was hanging out at Nasa in August, no doubt in prep for his new gig… 

announced earlier this month.

Ron assured us that he is not leaving Outlander, but he has said that day to day running of the show now belongs to Matt and Toni (it’s in good hands IMO).

Sam began filming The Spy Who Dumped Me immediately after S3 filming wrapped, and the rest of the cast and crew became busy with other projects as well. To read more about that, Go HERE.

September:

September arrived, and the long awaited premiere with it. I was so lucky to get to go to NYC and do red carpet interviews with Sam and Caitriona. It was a really fun experience… S3 NYC Premiere Cait & Sam Interview

After the red carpet interviews, we, the audience, were treated to an early look at Episode 301 on the big screen with a Sam and Cait Q&A afterward. If you’ve never been to a screening, it’s powerful to be in a room with a lot of other avid fans watching a new episode! It was a fabulous night, to say the least.

Caitriona and Sam appeared on numerous shows in NYC and did many interviews gearing up for the US premiere on Sept 10. One of the favorites (and the most popular post on my site of all time- with over 173k views!), was the Josh Horowitz interview… Jamie and Claire in couples therapy ?.

And on September 10th and 11th (for the most part), the Drought was over, and we all got to see the long awaited Episode 301. 

For pictorial highlights, CLICK HERE.

Other events in Sept in the UK included Scott Kyle’s annual Highlander Fling in Linlithgow…

Sam and the MPC crew put on the first MPC Gathering at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow. I was lucky enough to be in attendance with my mom for these two events.

I also caught Emma Campbell-Jones in The Best Man and chatted with her briefly about her powerful scenes with Sam as Mary McNab – Emma Campbell-Jones Interview.

and we saw Laura Donnelly in The Ferryman, which blew me away. 

I talked with her very briefly afterward (more on that later).

Sweet Duncan did a Q&A in Sept and had this to say about Murtagh’s return in S3…

Q: How do you see Murtagh’s future in the show knowing Murtagh didn’t survive in the books?

Duncan’s answer: “I’m excited to find out. I can’t imagine it would be easy for him separated from Scotland and Jamie. But he’s a survivor.”

Q: We had one love scene in season two. What actress would you want Murtagh to romance?

Duncan’s answer: “Anyone with bad enough eye-sight to take the job?”     (Oh please!) 

For the full Q&A – DUCAN Q&A

There were plenty of fan conventions in August – October; the cast were busy signing, posing, meeting and greeting. When Sam couldn’t make Starfury due to production conflicts with The Spy Who Dumped Me, fans and Caitriona had fun ribbing him…

October:

In October, the long awaited, extended length Episode 306, The Print Shop, subject of much discussion and anticipation (and actually entitled A. Malcolm), finally aired, and Jamie and Claire were back together! Woot woot! Related posts: 107: Blueprint for the Print Shop? ; Ep 306 Deep Dive ; Ep 306 Podcast

Filming for Season 4 also began in October.

November:

In November we found out about Jamie’s other wife, got to go back to Lallybroch, and saw the fireworks in Episode 308 (Review).

We also set sail on the Artemis and enjoyed all the adventures that followed.

December:

In December we met that crazy Bakra and got to see wonderful Young Ian and Lord John Grey again. I loved the finale, although the end means more Droughtlander….

There were lots more Q&A’s at the end of the year; here are some of them, including Outlander Writers on the Finale (covered by Erin Conrad (TiBS), David Berry(covered by Erin Conrad (TiBS), Sam, Diana , Lauren Lyle (Marsali), César Domboy (Fergus), and Caitriona on the Finale (covered by Erin Conrad (TiBS).

The last day of filming for S4 in 2017 was Dec 10th I believe (filming will resume after the holidays). The very bedraggled cast and crew headed off in different directions for rest and relaxation. Cait is on a beach, and Sam is working (of course) hard on MPC2018 and getting in lots of work outs with Valbo. Yesterday he tweeted that he’s in London (but it took 14 hours to get there from Glasgow, so I don’t think it’s London, England). Diana will be spending time with family in California and invited Sam to join in (saying he needs no invitation.) Terry and Ron are enjoying family time in LA, and Gary is also in LA enjoying baking with Barry and probably catching up on his taxes and dentist appointments (hee hee). 

I got to spend some time with our fearless leader, Diana, in December. I’ll tell you more about that in the new year.

Lots to look forward to – a new season is in the works, Bees may be finished by the end of 2018, and we get to keep up with this fabulous ever growing Outlander family. What a pleasure. Thanks for reading and watching. I feel so lucky to be on this Outlander journey with you! 

Here’s a video clip of Cait and Sam wrapping up the last episode this season, and Matt, Toni, and Ron summing up this season and looking to the next. Seems an appropriate note to end on. Wishing you all the best in the New Year xo

9 comments on “Looking Back at 2017, and Looking Ahead. Happy New Year from Outlander Behind The Scenes

  1. Thanks for a great summary of the Outlander 2017 year! Sorry I didn’t get to meet you at either Blackpool or the MPC event weekend in Glasgow.

  2. Being a late discoverer of the outlander series I have become totally engrossed. I have loved it all. Since 2015 I have read all 8 books twice and watched Tv episodes over and over. Simply love everything about the show. The mainly unknown actors have shown us all what great actors can do when given a wonderful story to work with. Thank you Diana. I am definitely a 68 year old outlander lover. I have also read the novellas. Love them all.

  3. Courtney I love your way with words. I feel all the emotions in what you write and adore all your blog posts. Happy New Year!
    Can’t wait to continue the journey with Season 4. Xx

    • I love that you do Jennifer and I’m happy you’re here ?. I look forward to more in 2018 as well, thanks for writing xo

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *