Outlander season 4 filming this fall; writing progress report
This information was confirmed on Twitter by none other than executive producer Matthew B. Roberts, who did a brief question-and-answer session as he and the writers continue their work on the upcoming season. Because of the way the schedules worked out this time, he went virtually from wrapping season 3 in Cape Town to returning to Los Angeles to kick off work on the season 4 scripts. As of now, roughly half of the fourth season (based on Drums of Autumn) has been broken — that doesn’t mean the scripts are written by any means, but it’s been planned out in a broader sense. There’s a great deal of work that happens within a writers room, and much of it is more complicated than anyone would know. It’s a sign of the writers doing a good job with their work.
Roberts also confirmed a few other useful tidbits, including that the fourth season will film in Scotland (which seemed all but confirmed already) and should run thirteen episodes. There are new writers on this season, but it is a bit too early to get into casting news as of yet (beyond of course Rollo, which was announced previously — it does take time for the dogs to be trained).
In getting back to filming for a moment here, we would assume that production will get closer to beginning following the season 3 premiere and promotional tour. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to film when you don’t have Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan available, so our feeling is that when they’re done with interviews / TV appearances, production can start gearing up then for the next batch of episodes.
Given that things are so early in the writing process at the moment, it is far too early to presume when Outlander season 4 will premiere. At the earliest, it’d be fall 2018 given that we don’t see it possible to rush production with a show like this.
Of course, no matter when season 4 begins filming we’ll be around with further coverage over at the link here. Be sure to keep checking back, and share some of your thoughts in the comments below. (Photo: Starz.)