When could further Outlander season 4 casting news come out?

Earlier this week, we were handed some of the earliest Outlander season 4 casting news — and certainly some of the cutest. After all, who isn’t excited about the idea of two new puppies being trained to share the role of Young Ian’s dog Rollo?

While adorable, this news was also very significant given that fact that it was the first bit of new casting insight that we’ve had for the season coming after the current one. In some ways, it’s odd to even be thinking this far ahead given that season 3 is still being filmed! The reason why we’re learning about the dogs now is simply a matter of training — it takes a lot more time to get young dogs properly trained for acting than it does hiring a professional actor, one who already knows their craft, for a role. There are always unknowns that can happen when working with animals, so the longer they can train, the better it is for everyone.

So when could the rest of season 4 be cast in terms of its new players? Given that (minor book spoilers ahead) Jamie and Claire are going to be in a different part of the world for much of the Drums of Autumn story, they will be meeting plenty of new people. As a result of that, there will be many castings coming!

Now that we’ve said that, we all have to cool our jets for a while. Executive producer Maril Davis recently said in a Twitter Q&A session that they’re not actively casting season 4 right now, and we presume they won’t be for a while given that finishing filming in South Africa is the priority. After that, the writers / producers will have to start breaking down the story that they want to put onscreen for the fourth season. Some characters from the books may not make it, and some could be modified. It’s the same as any other adaptation in that way since there’s only so much time.

Our sentiment is that maybe in the late summer of early fall, you’ll start hearing a little buzz … but that may even be setting the hopes high. We would be shocked if anyone started filming season 4 until after the promotional tour for season 3; the only thing we can say at present is that there are some locations for next season being scouted ahead of time; it never hurts to be ahead of the curve!

Check out some other recent coverage

One Outlander feature we would recommend to you today is our piece regarding possible spin-offs — hopefully, it’s another worthy read to get you ready for the weekend! (Photo: Starz.)