Outlander notes: A Sam Heughan anniversary, a birthday, and a trip

What’s going on within the world of Outlander today? There are a few different things worth focusing on, but let’s begin with a milestone within the career of Sam Heughan. Today marks six years since his casting as Jamie Fraser was first announced!

July 9, 2013 is when the news of Heughan’s casting first came out via a Starz press release, and at the time it was met with great enthusiasm. Here is what series author Diana Gabaldon had to say in a statement all about it:

“Oh. My. God. That man is a Scot to the bone and Jamie Fraser to the heart. Having seen Sam Heughan not just act, but be Jamie, I feel immensely grateful to the production team for their painstaking attention to the soul of the story and characters.”

Sam was actually the first of the series’ two leads cast, as Caitriona Balfe was officially brought on board as Claire on September 11, 2013 in a separate announcement. It’s been well-documented at this point all of the work and effort that was done in order to make sure that the series got these castings perfect, whether it be lengthy auditions to chemistry reads. Six years in, it’s fair to say that casting Sam helped to make Outlander the phenomenon it now is.

As for some other Outlander news…

Happy (early) birthday, Lauren Lyle – If you head over to the Instagram Stories of Cesar Domboy, you can see him alongside many other co-stars (including Sophie Skelton and David Berry) singing Happy Birthday to his on-screen wife Lauren. Her birthday technically isn’t until later in the week, but what better way to celebrate in advance than getting together with a number of your co-stars for a celebration? This is another reminder of how close much of the cast is even when the cameras are not rolling.

The travels of Duncan Lacroix – As of late, the man behind Murtagh has been in Sicily, which leads us to wonder if much of the cast has had an opportunity to have a breather from filming recently? Remember that just yesterday, Caitriona Balfe was in Wimbledon. Some of it may just have to do with Outlander having enough actors that performers occasionally get little breaks in the action during shooting.

As always, we welcome more of your thoughts on all things Outlander in the comments.

Photo: Starz