Outlander season 5: How Sam Heughan, Caitriona Balfe may be more involved
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Speaking in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar about the season 4 finale, Heughan makes it clear that he and Balfe are in the midst of discussions with Starz over a larger creative role in the story, which would enable them to guide their characters along their desired path far more than ever before:
…We’re hoping next season to have a lot more influence in the characters and the storyline, and be a part of that creatively. We are usually involved, and some seasons have been stronger than others, but we’re possibly talking with Starz and Sony right now. We’ll see… We’ve always wanted to be a part of it and to help influence the journey and the story and also to be the guardians of our characters and protect that.
So what does this mean? We wouldn’t interpret this to mean that Heughan and Balfe will be sitting within the writers’ room helping to pen episodes; instead, we wouldn’t be surprised if they were involved in early planning or receive credit as producers in the future. These are things that often do happen with stars on long-running television series — the actors know their roles so well, they are extremely well-qualified to lend more insight behind the scenes. While we’re not sure Outlander is far enough just yet in its run to call it “long-running,” it is certainly moving forward in that direction now. By the time the series makes it to season 6, it will have been on the air longer than a lot of cable shows out there. Typically, cable series have a shelf life of around six or seven years, though occasionally you have one like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or (most likely) The Walking Dead that manages to break that.
Outlander season 5 will start filming a little bit later this winter, and it should premiere on Starz at the latest in 2020. Given that we are still coming out of the season 4 finale, this is more than likely something that the writers are not going to hurry along too much.
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Do you want to see some of the stars of Outlander more involved behind the scenes? Be sure to share right now in the comments. (Photo: Starz.)