Outlander season 5 spoilers: The challenges of adapting, including scenes
So how do you decide what’s kept and not kept? How do you decide on what changes to make? It really seems to be a matter of consensus or at least relatively so. This is something that we discussed recently through the lens of a controversial change at the end of season 4, but it applies elsewhere, as well — think in terms of the choice to keep Murtagh alive. It’s a change that most viewers seem to be in favor of, but there was likely as much heated debate on this as there were some unfavorable changes that we’ve seen over time as well.
In speaking about some of these decisions, what goes into them, and some hopes in regards to season 5, here is what executive producer Maril Davis had to say in a new piece via Parade:
“Obviously, keeping Murtagh alive was a choice that we made that has repercussions in terms of he has a story that he wouldn’t have had if he had died at Culloden … But we think the story is really interesting, and we are going to play it out and see. We hope that we still get in the fan-favorite moments, and still have those Jamie and Claire connections and those intimate moments that people are looking for.”
The clear hope here on the part of many viewers is for as much Jamie and Claire as possible, and we think that this season could succeed with that. In general though, we think that season 5 should give a good showcase for every character from Jamie and Claire to Roger and Bree to Murtagh to Fergus and Marsali. With more of the characters in one place now, it means that there’s more time for all of them to actually spend together! One of the tough things about season 4 is that there were so many individual stories that had to be told, which means that we often drifted far from some characters to focus on others — it didn’t make sense to bounce back and forth between the two at a rapid pace, but now we have everyone descending on Fraser’s Ridge for what is hopefully going to be a season that encapsulates so much of what Outlander fans love about this show.
We’re sure that there will be people who are unhappy with certain Outlander decisions in the new season — it’s the nature of the beast with a story like this, one that has already existed in book form and everyone’s going to have their own feelings about what it should and shouldn’t look like. In the end, we’re just hoping that it is as satisfying as humanly possible.
What are you the most excited to see when it comes to Outlander season 5? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
Photo: Starz