Everything We Know So Far About Outlander Season 4

From Town & Country

Droughtlander is officially back. Outlander's season three finale aired back in December of 2017 (stream it here), but that doesn't mean we can't go ahead and get a little bit excited for season four. Here's everything we know about it so far, but proceed with caution, spoilers ahead:

The season will be based on Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon.

The plot of the series will reportedly follow the fourth book in Gabaldon's Outlander saga. Per the author's website, the novel follows Claire, Jamie, and his nephew Ian as they "seek to find a place for themselves in the colony of North Carolina, treading a dangerous line between Governor Tryon’s patronage and Claire’s knowledge of the brewing revolution in America."

But at this point, it's unclear how closely the show will follow the details of the books. Specifically, the scandalous riverbank scene might not play out exactly as you imagined it. In an interview with ET, Heughan said "No, we've not shot anything by a river, at all."

"There's water involved, but it might not be a river, who knows?" he teased.

There will be several new additions to the cast.

It was announced in early October that Maria Doyle Kennedy (of Orphan Black and The Tudors) has been cast in the role of Jamie's aunt Jocasta Cameron and Ed Speleers (Downton Abbey, Wolf Hall) will play Stephen Bonnet, who executive producer Matt B. Roberts calls "a pure psychopath."

"Stephen Bonnet is a pure psychopath and a narcissist whose day-to-day is, 'What's going to pleasure me?'" Roberts told the Hollywood Reporter. "He's also a chameleon. He can act like anybody and fit into any situation, and that's what makes him so different. You never know what you're going to get with him."

Actor Sam Heughan echoed Roberts's statements, "It's hard to top Black Jack but we have with Bonnet. Ed Speleers committed to this. People are going to hate him. He's so charming, so you kind of like him, but you find out later down the line that he does some really terrible things. He's a great new villain."

The official Outlander Instagram account also shared that these cute pups will play Rollo, young Ian's dog, in the upcoming season.

"They look cute, but tough," Gabaldon told EW. "They should be just right to play Rollo when the time comes."

And then in February, Rollo was all grown up on the Outlander Twitter account:

Future seasons are all but confirmed.

Season four likely won't be the last of Outlander. "There are ten books, and we are having very productive conversations about the future of the show," Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said at the Television Critics Association Press Tour on January 12.

"We have joined the legions of fans of Outlander around the world. Our biggest concern is making sure that we don’t kill Caitriona [Balfe] and Sam [Heughan] along the way,” he continued, according to Harper's Bazaar. "The two of them are fantastic and deserve every bit of the accolades they have received."

And on March 18, Ron Moore echoed Albrecht's statements. "We are certainly going to do it," he said. "I have no doubt we are doing a season 5."

Some of this season will be filmed in Glasgow.

In March, stars Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe stopped to take photos with a few fans on set. Check them out below:

The first teaser is already here!

Starz kicked off Droughtlander with a 20-second sneak peek of season four. In the clip above, which aired directly after the season three finale, we see Claire and Jamie in "a new land," America.

"There'll be lots of different people here, all hoping to live what will be called, 'the American dream,'" Claire says. We can't wait.

In the new season, Claire and Jamie are building a new life in America.

"Claire knows so much about the history of America and what was going on at the time but to see it firsthand can be quite difficult, some of the aspects of that colonial time," Balfe told The Hollywood Reporter. "She believes that this is her home, but it's hard to watch and see some of the things that are going on at that time."

Gabaldon just shared a major spoiler on Twitter.

Galbadon tweeted a link to an excerpt from the book Drums of Autumn with the following hashtags: #DailyLines #DRUMSofAUTUMN #ThisisaSPOILERifyouhaventreadthebook #whyhaventyoureadit #itsbeenoutsince1996forheavenssake #anyway #inwhichBriannaMeetsSomeoneImportant

In the passage, Brianna does indeed meet someone important: her father, Jamie Frasier. Read the full post here.

Moore spoke about this reunion to The Hollywood Reporter. "If you know that story, you know why Brianna's gone back in time, she's there for a very specific purpose and intent," he says.

"Jamie and Claire are trying to create a home and a life and a homestead and bringing other tenants up to Frasier's Ridge. They're all moving a bit in different directions when that event occurs."

The season will have a decidedly different sound.

Composer Bear McCreary is known for changing up the score of the show to fit the setting. Take, for example, the French variation of the show's theme song in season two and the Caribbean version of The Skye Boat Song in season three.

"Historically speaking, we pushed the sound of the score to reflect our characters’ growth and our geography. Just because the end of season 3 was so exotic with all the Jamaican stuff, that has to be reversed in the new year," McCreary told Entertainment Weekly.

"I am in a weird position if you think about it where most of the story took place - in Scotland about Scottish characters - and so Scottish folk music was a really big part of the score and in many ways as connected to the characters of Jamie and Claire. So now they are in America and we are commenting on the geography, but at the end of the day, it’s way more important to comment on the characters and comment on their drama and our familiarity with them," he continued.

"We are seeing everything through their eyes and so I do think their theme that I wrote for them, the presence of bagpipes underscoring Jamie’s strength, are things that will remain in the show."

Actress Caitriona Balfe promises it will as be steamy as ever.

Outlander fans have come to expect a certain level of sex appeal from their beloved Starz show, and Balfe promises season 4 won't disappoint.

When asked about the show's steaminess, Balfe told Elle.com, “I think that’s a given at this point."

She also shared a bit about the upcoming plot. “We see Jamie and Claire as immigrants, as pioneers, and that’s a very interesting thing to watch,” Balfe said. “I think what Scotland meant to Jamie and Claire was such an integral part of the storyline, and so it’s really interesting to see these people as immigrants, and how they meet their native American neighbors and the relationships they forge with them. I’m excited about this season. I think it’s going to be really interesting.”

But Sam Heughan revealed that "things might have slowed down" in terms of sex scenes this season

"“It’s a very important part of their relationship. But without the tension of constantly being separated, or imprisoned, or nearly dead, things might have slowed down a little in that department," he said, according to Express. "They’re slightly older, so maybe it’s less energetic, who knows? But they are madly in love with each other."

Producer Ron Moore won't be writing the first episode.

Breaking tradition, Ronald Moore revealed he did not wrote the first episode of season four in a recent Twitter chat.

Tobias Menzies could make a return to the series.

We're still reeling over Frank's shocking death in season three, but Moore just gave us hope that we might see Menzies again in season four. When asked "Is Tobias coming back somehow for Season four?" by Deadline, Moore responded, "I think there’s a strong possibility we’re going to do that. We’ve been talking about doing some way of getting Tobias back in the show in Season 4, at least for some flashbacks, or some other kinds of sequences. So nothing’s been committed yet, but yeah that’s on the table."

Earlier this year, Menzies told us something similar. "You can never say never," he said when I asked if we'd ever see him on the show again.

No premiere date has been released, but it's filming now.

Season four's premiere date has yet to be shared publicly, but the cast and crew are already filming in Scotland now. "The goal is to try to be on the air again next fall.” Moore told EW back in August.

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