Outlander season 5: What should the promotional focus be?
Instead, we want to put ourselves in the shoes of Starz and ask one very important question: What do you do in order to push season 5? How do you best promote it? Is there a solid, central hook?
When you think about the past few seasons in particular, there’s been something incredibly easy to sell. In season 2, it was the shift in setting to France and some of the drama that comes along with that. With season 3, it was the separation of Jamie and Claire and their journey to get back to each other. Meanwhile, with season 4 it was a change of setting again, this time to the New World. The tagline of “Brave the New World” was effective, especially since even casual/new viewers would get a good sense as to precisely what the story was about.
With season 5, however, things may be a tad more challenging. What’s worked about the promotional hooks for the past few seasons is that even if you weren’t up-to-date on the show, but where do you go with season 5? What do you show off? The setting, for starters, is largely the same. Meanwhile, the entirety of the cast is now together. We suppose that you could try to promote it around Jamie taking on the British while protecting Murtagh, but it’d be somewhat of a surprise to center most of your promotion around a character in Murtagh who was gone for more than a season and isn’t even alive in the book series at this point.
How to sell the season
Our feeling, at least for now, is two-fold. First, you try to sell it as the entire Fraser family being together. You still put Jamie and Claire front and center in all promotional material, but then you also fold in Brianna, Roger, and maybe some other familiar faces around Fraser’s Ridge. Then, you tease the looming threat of the Revolutionary War. The beginnings of the conflict take place within The Fiery Cross, and it seems like a logical move for the show to lean into this historical event. It’s a part of US history that most Americans are taught in school, so it will actually have a little bit of lasting impact to potential viewers who see it teased. It may be the right sort of thing to capture the attention of US history buffs who aren’t currently watching.
The goal with any promotion for a show is to come up with something that will convince viewers to watch in the blink of an eye. If Outlander goes in this direction with their season 5 material, they’re more than likely make a good many people intrigued.
For some additional Outlander news…
Be sure to visit the link here for some more discussion on how the show can best feature Scotland!
How do you think Starz could best market Outlander season 5? Be sure to share right now in the comments. (Photo: Starz.)