Outlander’s Sam Heughan Shares Feelings About ‘Mighty’ Season 6 Despite Fewer Episodes

outlander season 5 jamie sam heughan starz

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Make no mistake, Sassenachs, we have several more months of this Droughtlander left before we can finally lay our eyes on Outlander Season 6. The cast and crew went through a lot to make sure they could get back to work on the series we all love, and bring audiences more of the best episodes and sexiest romantic moments we enjoy watching. And, while we'll have a much shorter season than usual when it finally returns to the screen, star Sam Heughan has promised it will be worth the wait, and that Outlander's new season will be "mighty."

Filming on Outlander Season 6 wrapped in early June, and while many fans are probably still pretty disappointed that it will be our shortest season so far at only eight episodes, Jamie Fraser himself, Sam Heughan, seems to believe that viewers will still be all in when the new season finally arrives. In speaking with the Just the Facts podcast, when asked if he was happy with what they were able to do with Season 6, Heughan answered:

I'm really pleased with this season. It feels like, almost, an early western vibe to it. And, you know, we're building up to the War of Independence. Obviously, there's time travel, as well, and all of the other elements. So, yeah, it feels like a small but mighty season.

See there? "Small but mighty" is a nice and tidy way to describe the coming episodes of Outlander for fans who've already been waiting for over a year to see how the show will bring Diana Gabaldon's sixth book in her series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, to life. There may be well less than a dozen episodes in the next season, but it sounds like each one will be packed with all of the conflict, drama, and romance we expect to see from Outlander. And, with it being wrapped in a western-esq tone, it sounds like fans will continue to be obsessed.

The trick, of course, will be in how they manage to give a novel of over a thousand pages its due in only eight episodes (though the premiere is said to be 90 minutes long). Adapting Gabaldon's novels has already been a challenge with about 12 or so episodes in each previous season, and as Sam Heughan mentioned in his interview, things are really heating up around Fraser's Ridge.

One of the things that the beginning of the season, at least, will likely have to deal with is how Claire continues to heal after being kidnapped and brutalized by Lionel Brown and his gang. On top of that, of course, is the mounting tension of real historical events which will soon lead to the American Revolution, with Jamie being torn by his new (forced) loyalty to the crown, and his desire to do what's right at pretty much any cost to himself. And, unfortunately, the growing number of residents up on the Ridge won't make things any easier, as there will be mounting conflict among them, as well.

As you may have noticed, there are many storylines that need to happen on Outlander Season 6, so one can only imagine that packing it all in could lead to one of our most exciting seasons, yet.

Outlander is set to return to Starz early in 2022, but in the meantime, be sure to check out our guide to upcoming romantic TV shows and see what's on the small screen right now with our list of 2021 summer TV shows!

Adrienne Jones
Senior Content Creator

Covering The Witcher, Outlander, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and a slew of other streaming shows, Adrienne Jones is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend, and started in the fall of 2015. In addition to writing and editing stories on a variety of different topics, she also spends her work days trying to find new ways to write about the many romantic entanglements that fictional characters find themselves in on TV shows. She graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Photojournalism.