Outlander season 5 discussions progressing — what about season 6?

There is a little bit more news on the Outlander season 5 renewal front today, and a great deal of that is tied to what’s been going on at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour today for Starz.

Chris Albrecht, who is the CEO of the network, made it clear to reporters (per Entertainment Weekly) that there is no cause for concern when it comes to a season 5 renewal — something that CarterMatt has uttered many times ever since the end of season 3:

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that … We have joined the legions of fans of Outlander around the world. Our biggest problem is we don’t kill Caitriona [Balfe] and Sam [Heughan] along the way. The two of them are fantastic and deserve every bit of the accolades they have received.”

With his comment about jokingly “killing” his actors, Albrecht is referring to the show’s intense filming schedule, which requires a good nine months out of the year plus promotion and everything else that goes into the roles. The show does have to find a way to balance out the schedule for the show and the personal lives of everyone who works on it — for the writers and producers, Outlander right now is a year-round job.

The aforementioned site reports that there are some other discussions happening to go along with a renewal, such as if one season is enough to cover the story of a single book in the Diana Gabaldon series when there is so much going on. We definitely understand that, given that season 3 probably could have been about 16 episodes easily if the showrunners deemed it so.

There are also questions about Ronald D. Moore’s schedule being stretched too thin, but we’re not as concerned over that. He is not leaving the show (he’s already stated as much), but we wouldn’t be altogether surprised if he took more of a back seat down the road and handed off the formal showrunning reigns to someone else. Season 4 marks the first time he is not writing the premiere, and he already has executive producers like Maril Davis, Matthew B. Roberts, and Toni Graphia taking on a great deal of the responsibility for Outlander behind the scenes.

There is also talk about a possible season 6 renewal, which would give the show some flexibility and security for some time. While we at first weren’t altogether confident about this idea, we will say this: The longer the wait for a renewal, the more likely it is that we’ll get one for two seasons. It just makes things easier for Starz than having to go through this process of negotiating every year.

Related – Check out the latest Outlander headlines regarding Caitriona Balfe!

As always, we welcome your thoughts about possible Outlander renewals now in the comments. Meanwhile, be sure to like CarterMatt on Facebook in the event you want additional insight regarding the series right now. (Photo: Starz.)