Outlander’s Diana Gabaldon has spent a fair amount of time with the Fraser clan over the years weaving a tale that spans decades and features quite a few fan moments. But do any in particular stick out to Gabaldon? During a recent episode of Outlander’s in-between seasons series Outlander End Of Summer Series, Gabaldon and Starz showrunner Maril Davis shared their favorite moments from the book and TV series. As it turns out, the prolific author really relishes her characters being thrust into an intimate moment early on.
Early on in Book 1 of Outlander, Diana Gabaldon wrote a scene in which Claire rides to Castle Leoch and heals Jamie, leading to learning more about his backstory, his scars and himself as a person. Although Gabaldon also declared during End of Summer Series she does in fact have favorite moments from each of the books, that’s the one that really stands out to her in terms of how Jamie and Claire’s love story really starts to form into a full-blown reality. She noted:
The scene where Claire rides to Castle Leoch and starts healing Jamie because she's the only one to do it. It’s a forced intimacy that eventually turns into unexpected physical intimacy.
When it comes to Outlander the TV series, executive producer Maril Davis prefers a spookier moment, but also one featuring Claire early on in the series. She said while filming, there was a day the weather conditions were perfect and really set the mood for a scene in the episode of End of Summer Series (via SyfyWire).
In the script, it says that there's supposed to be this slight gust of wind when she's there, but we didn’t have a wind machine on the day we shot that. Every time Caitriona would do a take, the wind would come up. It was spooky and magical. Like it was the right place and the right time.
Obviously, the first book and season of Outlander did a good job of building a story audiences can identify with. Both the books and the show are going strong, with Diana Gabaldon close to wrapping up on the ninth book. (She already has ideas for a 10th.) Meanwhile, Outlander has already been renewed and is moving forward with Season 6.
While Jamie and Claire as characters aren’t the young, spry chickens they were at the start of the series, there’s a lot of really great American storytelling coming up with the Revolutionary War just over the horizon. Plus, there should be some fun historical characters set to come into play, should the show follow the books with that storyline.
Unfortunately, we will have a little while to wait. Outlander was supposed to be in production already – and in fact the show takes quite a while to film new seasons under normal circumstances. This year’s global health crisis really caused a bit of a setback on that front, and plans were still just coming together regarding moving forward a couple of months ago.
At the very least, Sam Heughan and other cast members seem to be champing at the bit to get back to work. Plus, you can always relive some of the show’s steamiest scenes while you wait, if you haven't already!
