Outlander season 8: key information
– Renewed in January 2023
– Premieres on March 6, 2026
– Officially the final season of the show
– Main cast set to return
– Three new characters confirmed
– Plot will continue to be based on Diana Gabaldon’s famed books
– Prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, in production for season 2
Outlander season 8 is coming on March 6, 2026, marking the final season of the time-traveling fantasy drama on Starz.
And, according to The Hollywood Reporter, we better prepare ourselves for more tear-filled tissues as: “The Frasers attempt to keep a united front against outside intruders, only to see family secrets surface and threaten to tear them apart from the inside.” As if they haven’t been through enough already.
There’s plenty more to talk about when it comes to Outlander season 8 though, so here’s everything we know so far about the hit drama’s return from release date, confirmed cast, plot rumors, and more.
Full spoilers follow for Outlander seasons 1-7. Potential spoilers are also discussed for season 8.
Outlander season 8: is there a release date?
Every moment has led to this. #Outlander’s final season premieres March 6.Relive the passion, drama, and adventure. Catch up on every episode only on STARZ. #OutlanderForever pic.twitter.com/q2PHmfUTdhNovember 10, 2025
Yes, we have an Outlander season 8 release date and it’s officially been revealed to premiere on March 6, 2026.
The final season was given its renewal status way back in January 2023, but since then the extended season 7 has been released in two parts, concluding in January 2025.
And, in a statement to Forbes, Kathryn Busby, president of original programming for Starz, said: “For nearly a decade Outlander has won the hearts of audiences worldwide and we’re pleased to bring Claire and Jamie’s epic love story to a proper conclusion.”
We also know that the cast and crew officially wrapped filming back in September 2024, which was revealed alongside a series photos of the cast members posing posing on set with the final clapboard.
The Instagram post says: “Outlander really is more than just a show, it’s a family, and while filming might be ending, there’s so much more to this journey that’s just beginning.”
Season 8 will also reportedly consist of 10 episodes, as opposed to season 7’s extended 16 episode run. And we’ll circle back here as soon as hear of an exact release date.
Outlander season 8: has a trailer been released?
Yes, an Outlander season 8 teaser trailer dropped in September, giving us a sneak peek at what’s to come. It’s not quite a full trailer, which will undoubtedly follow in early 2026, but it’s enough to keep us going for now.
In the teaser, Claire and Jamie reminisce about their lives together and what lies ahead. As Claire says: “With everything that’s about to come, I’m so scared to lose everything.” Weaved alongside flashbacks is a look at their home in Fraser’s Ridge under the threat of intruders.
For season 7, the official trailer dropped a month before the first episode, so we’d imagine much of the same for season 8. We’ll be sure to update you here as soon as it arrives.
Outlander season 8: confirmed cast
Spoilers follow for Outlander seasons 1-7.
As per the show’s official Instagram post confirming filming had concluded and the teaser trailer (both featured above), we know the following cast will be returning for Outlander season 8:
- Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser
- Caitríona Balfe as Claire Fraser
- Sophie Skelton as Brianna Randall Fraser / MacKenzie
- Richard Rankin as Roger MacKenzie
- David Berry as Lord John Grey
- John Bell as Young Ian Murray
- Charles Vandervaart as William Ransom
- Izzy Meikle-Small as Rachel Hunter
- César Domboy as Fergus
- Lauren Lyle as Marsali
- Diarmaid Murtagh as William ‘Buck’ MacKenzie
- Joey Phillips as Dr. Denzell Hunter
As part of World Outlander Day in June 2024, we also know of three new characters who have been confirmed to be joining for season 8. These are Kieran Brew as Captain Charles Cunningham, a retired British soldier, Frances Tomelty as his mother, Elspeth Cunningham and Carla Woodcock as Amaranthus Grey, a new member of the Grey family.
Outlander season 8: story synopsis and rumors
Full spoilers follow for Outlander seasons 1-7. Potential spoilers for Outlander season 8.
There is an official synopsis for Outlander season 8, which reads: “Jamie and Claire find the Revolutionary War has followed them home to Fraser’s Ridge, now a thriving settlement that has grown and flourished in their absence.
“With new arrivals and changes made during their years away, the Frasers are confronted with the question of what they are willing to sacrifice for the place they call home and, more importantly, what they would sacrifice to stay together.
“While the Frasers keep a united front against outside intruders, family secrets finally coming to light threaten to tear them apart from the inside. Although they’ve left the war for America’s freedom behind, their fight for Fraser’s Ridge has only just begun.”
And this synopsis is in-keeping with the rest of the series, with each season of Outlander following the book series by Diana Gabaldon, as the romantic time-traveling tale unfolds between Claire, a military nurse and Jamie, a Highland warrior.
For season 7, both the sixth and seventh books of Gabaldon’s series were unravelled, titled A Breath of Snow and Ashes and An Echo in My Bones.
It seems incredibly likely then that the basis of season 8 will be Gabaldon’s eighth and ninth book, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood and Go Tell the Bees The I Am Gone.
But, Gabaldon has also been working on the tenth Outlander book, which she announced on her website in May 2025, will be the final novel in the main series titled A Blessing for a Warrior Going Out.
Whether this tenth book will have been fed into season 8 is unclear, but as the conclusion of Jamie and Claire’s love story, it would seem likely that at least the most recent books would play a part in season 8’s tale, although nothing has been officially confirmed.
If they were to follow the next books, then it’s worth taking a look at the official synopsis of each to get an idea of what might happen in the show. For book eight: “It is June 1778, and the world seems to be turning upside-down. The British Army is withdrawing from Philadelphia, with George Washington in pursuit, and for the first time, it looks as if the rebels might actually win. But for Claire Fraser and her family, there are even more tumultuous revolutions that have to be accommodated.
“Her former husband, Jamie, has returned from the dead, demanding to know why in his absence she married his best friend, Lord John Grey. Lord John’s son, the ninth Earl of Ellesmere, is no less shocked to discover that his real father is actually the newly resurrected Jamie Fraser, and Jamie’s nephew Ian Murray discovers that his new-found cousin has an eye for the woman who has just agreed to marry him.
“And while Claire is terrified that one of her husbands may be about to murder the other, in the 20th century her descendants face even more desperate turns of events. Her daughter Brianna is trying to protect her son from a vicious criminal with murder on his mind, while her husband Roger has disappeared into the past…”
And book nine follows Jamie and Claire in 1779, embroiled in the American Revolution and reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children on Fraser’s Ridge.
Both of these books resonate with what we’ve seen so far in the short teaser trailer with the threat of war knocking at the doorstep of the place they’ve finally called home.
Plus, there’s that cliffhanger of the season 7 part 2 finale that we most certainly want answers to. As young girl, Fanny, is overheard by Claire singing ‘I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside’, a song she sang to her stillborn daughter Faith from season 2, leading her to believe that perhaps Faith didn’t die after all.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Balfe said: “It’s such an interesting cliffhanger because it just opens up this whole other world of questions, which leads us so brilliantly into the next season. I think for Claire, it’s like her heart stops, her heart breaks and her heart sings — all at the same time.”
Fortunately, it looks like we’ll get all the answers we need in season 8 as co-showrunner Matthew B Roberts told TVLine: “Obviously it’s a cliffhanger, but hopefully we tie it up in a bow with the answers and the explanations and what happens and the ramifications of all that on Jamie and Claire.”
Will there be more seasons of Outlander?
Not quite. While Outlander will officially conclude with season 8, the prequel series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, revealed alongside season 8’s renewal, will be continuing the show’s story down an entirely new path.
The prequel follows the lives of Jamie’s and Claire’s parents. Jamie’s parents, Ellen MacKenzie and Brian Fraser are in 18th century Scotland, while in World War I Britain, Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp’s lives exist in a time before Claire arrived.
And you’ll be pleased to know there’s already an entire season 1 to watch, which concluded in October 2025, and season 2 is reportedly already in production with the cast saying: ‘It’s wildly not what you’d expect’.
Sure, it’s not quite Jamie and Claire, but it’s the closest we’ll get to them post-Outlander season 8 and we’re really not mad about it.
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