Everything We Know About Outlander's 8th and Final Season

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."

After a prolonged Droughtlander due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a shorter season six of Outlander, part two of the oversized season seven will air later this year. But some fans are already thinking ahead to season eight. Here's what we know so far.

Season eight will be the show's final season.

In January 2023, Starz confirmed the show would be coming back for one more season. “For nearly a decade ‘Outlander’ has won the hearts of audiences worldwide and we’re pleased to bring Claire and Jamie’s epic love story to a proper conclusion,” said Kathryn Busby, President, Original Programming for STARZ. “But before we close this chapter there is plenty of their passionate story to tell over the course of 26 new episodes and even more to explore of this dynamic world and its origin story. We’re thrilled to continue to partner with Matthew, Maril and Ronald and can’t wait to see where their alluring storytelling takes us next.” (The 26 new episodes refer to the 16 slated for season seven, and ten more for season eight.)

This is something of a change from previous discourse about how long the show would run. Executive producer Maril Davis had said: "We'll keep making this until Claire and Jamie are a hundred. Honestly, we will. There's still many more books to go. And if Starz and Sony are willing, we're willing, and if the actors are willing, we'll keep going."

They had already started filming season seven, thinking it could be the end, before they heard the show was renewed for a season eight.

"We had already broken season seven before we found out we were getting to season eight. And we really, unfortunately because we didn't know, we had to approach season seven as this might be our last. And because of that we were like, 'What material do we have left?' Because we thought it would be our last," executive producer Maril Davis told Town & Country. "It wasn't until halfway through filming season seven that we found out we were getting to season eight. We obviously adjusted the end of season seven, which we'll get to whenever we get to. So in that way it changed it, but we really went into season thinking this was it."

Filming will start soon.

"That’s a WRAP!!! 🙌" wrote actor Sam Heughan on Instagram. "220 shooting days, a whole year of Outlander. THANK YOU to our amazing crew who have worked so hard and to our brilliant fans… we CANNOT WAIT for you to see season 8."

But this was likely a typo, as his co-star Caitriona Balfe clarified later that filming is set to start on the eighth and final season later in 2023. "We're about to start shooting, in a few months, our eighth season but our seventh season is starting to air on June 16th," she said. (This was delayed due to the writer's strike.)

When announcing that production had begun on Outlander: Blood of my Blood, the show's prequel in February 2024, Starz confirmed that the "10-episode eighth season... will begin production shortly in Scotland."

There's plenty of source material.

Outlander's seventh season will presumably focus in on Diana Gabaldon's seventh book in the Outlander series, An Echo in the Bone—so season eight could be an adaptation of her eighth novel, Written in My Own Heart's Blood. Gabaldon recently finished her ninth book in the series, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, and is now working on her tenth and likely final novel.

Outlander

Dragonfly in Amber

Voyager

The Drums of Autumn

The Fiery Cross (Outlander)

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

An Echo in the Bone: A Novel

Written in My Own Heart's Blood: A Novel

You Might Also Like

• 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion

• 13 Beauty Tools to Up Your At-Home Facial Game