‘Outlander’ season 3 notes: On schedules, goodbyes, and greetings

Happy new week, “Outlander” fans — and happy President’s Day / Family Day to those of you in the U.S. and parts of Canada! We had a bit of a rest on Sunday, but we’re back now with a few more discussion points as the Droughtlander marches on. Only seven months, give or take, until the third season is here! (Yes, that does seem impossibly long right now, but time will move quickly … hopefully.)

We want to begin this week by touching on a subject that we’ve discussed here and there in past articles — how much time, if any, will the folks behind the scenes have off between seasons? The answer seems to be “not much.” Production is ending in South Africa on the third season in June, and per executive producer Maril Davis, the writers room will be working throughout the summer to get things going for the fourth season. When you’re an executive producer and you wear so many different hats, you get your breaks where you can!

There are some people on the show who will have a little bit of a break, but that varies a good bit depending on the job. It’s hard to get too much into the metrics of that season when there are still months to go filming season 3, but we’re certainly interested already in seeing what Drums of Autumn could have in store for us.

Farewell to Scotland video – We’re not isolating this into a separate article just because it’s been a few days, but somehow we didn’t get a chance to write about it until now! It’s a lovely little video featuring Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan saying goodbye to Scotland as they finished filming there — they thank the crew, and give great respect to the fans who’ve been hanging out around location.

What’s also notable is that there seems to be an expectation that the show will be back there filming at some point, even though “Outlander” itself may be shifting its story from Scotland as the series moves further along. Our feeling on that is that you could certainly have parts of the area double for other locations; in addition, but you could still do all of your interiors at your home base with the crew you already know and love.

Sam and Caitriona should be greeting fans and crew members in South Africa in the weeks to come.

Want some other news on “Outlander,” including some chatter about recent awards and how the show’s schedule could impact them? Then be sure to visit our show archive now! (Photo: Starz.)