Outlander season 4 could film some North Carolina scenes in Eastern Europe

Since we do always love to look ahead, why not do that with discussing the latest Outlander season 4 filming news?

There are a ton of details in the new Entertainment Weekly cover story about the show, and some of them we’ve talked about here at CarterMatt before. However, there are a couple of little tidbits that you may have missed that are worthy of some more analysis, including the news that the show may use more places than just Scotland in order to substitute for North Carolina. For those of you who are book readers, you know that this is where a good bit of the action comes in for Drums of Autumn.

Here is what Ronald D. Moore, showrunner for the series, had to say about their current filming plans:

“We’re deep into writing it. There are crews on the ground in Scotland, and have been there for quite some time prepping, so we’re moving forward … [We’re going to use Scotland, but] we’ll also go to Eastern Europe and shoot some stuff for the mountains and rivers of North Carolina.”

It’s unclear whether or not the cast will travel to Eastern Europe, or if the majority of the scenes being filmed there are just exterior location-based. Either way, we know that there is some beautiful scenery that we could see from Germany, Bulgaria, or Romania that could double for parts of North Carolina rather nicely.

One of the biggest questions that we’ve heard is why the show just doesn’t move to North Carolina outright, and the simplest answer that we have to that is this: Cost. In Scotland, there is already an architecture in place. You’ve got a familiar crew who knows what the show looks like and how to make it. Sure, there are great crews in North Carolina (many U.S. shows have been filmed there over the years), but they aren’t all trained for the needs of Outlander and doing that would take time and money. You would also still need to get some of your Scottish crew to come over, and it’s always a challenge convincing people to pack up their lives for months on end and be somewhere else. The show just did that with many people when production for season 3 shifted to South Africa.

We also know that Outlander has a superb locations team, and we’ve got a feeling they’ve figured out some great spots for filming in Scotland already that look very different from where they’ve been to date.

For those wondering about new characters…

Fellow executive producer Maril Davis also had the following to say on that subject:

“Season 4 is all about Jocasta, who’s Jamie’s aunt … There are also several people in Jocasta’s household. Captain Stephen Bonnet becomes a baddie, and there are several Native American roles. There are some really fun parts to cast.”

We imagine that these roles will get cast in the weeks after season 3 premieres; after all, season 4 will begin filming this fall.

As always, we welcome some of your thoughts on this story in the comments! Meanwhile, head over here for some more Outlnader news, including scoop on a UK premiere event. (Photo: Starz.)