Will There Be A Season 9 of Outlander?

Outlander fans are no strangers to heartbreak—in fact, it's pretty much the show's bread and butter—but still, news of the show's final season has been a lot to absorb. In January 2023, Starz officially confirmed that the eighth season of the time-traveling romantic drama will be its last.

“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,” Kathryn Busby, President of Original Programming for Starz, said in a statement. "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.” Those 26 new episodes will be spread out into a 16-episode season seven, which will premiere sometime this year, and a final run of 10 episodes.

All of which means that there will not be a season nine of Outlander. That's a surprise for a couple of reasons—for one thing, showrunner Maril Davis has previously 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." Presumably, at least one of those "ifs" is no longer true.

But the main reason why the news came as such a shock to fans is that Diana Gabaldon's Outlander book series had laid the groundwork for a ten season run. Gabaldon recently finished her ninth book in the series, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, and has revealed that she's currently working on her tenth and likely final Outlander novel. Since it's not clear when that writing process will be finished, it's conceivable that Gabaldon's final novel will not end up being adapted at all.

On the other hand, Gabaldon has made it clear that she has known how the Outlander saga will end for some time. We know for a fact that the author has already shared some tidbits about the ending with Sam Heughan, after all. "She emailed me the last few pages of what will be the last book very early on, I think in the first few weeks of shooting and no one else has seen that I think, apart from one other exec producer," Heughan told Esquire UK. "Even Caitríona’s not seen it and I’m sworn to secrecy."

In a recent interview Gabaldon also said, "I have shared the ending scenes with [the creative team]. But as to the actual way that the story [concludes]? No, they don’t know that. [Laughs] But we’ll get there."

So all in all, fans can rest assured that the ending of Outlander on screen is in safe hands. Given how heavily involved she is with the series, it's safe to bet that Gabaldon will work closely with Lynch and the rest of the writing team to make sure we don't end up with a Game of Thrones situation. And while the prospect of saying goodbye to Jamie and Claire is hard to handle, the Outlander universe will continue on Starz, in the form of the upcoming prequel series Blood of my Blood as well as a potential Lord John spin-off, though that one has not officially been announced or confirmed.

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