STARZ is moving forward with an Outlander prequel series

By Blair Marnell February 26, 2022

Outlander will return to STARZ in just over a week for its sixth season, nearly two years after the fifth season finale. But if Starz has its way, the saga of Outlander is going to be getting much bigger. Variety is reporting that Starz is developing an Outlander prequel series. And according to this story, Matthew B. Roberts, the executive producer and showrunner of Outlander, has already been hired to write and executive produce the new prequel. Variety adds that “a writers’ room is currently being assembled with an eye to begin work in the coming weeks.”

Novelist Diana Gabaldon created the franchise in 1991 with the debut of her book Outlander. The story introduced readers to a World War II nurse named Claire Randall who mysteriously finds herself transported back to 1743 in the Scottish Highlands. After Claire’s arrival, she is taken in by the MacKenzie clan as a healer and encounters Jamie Fraser, the man who becomes her only true ally in this time period. Claire and Jamie’s romance and eventual marriage are the backbone of the franchise, even when they are separated by centuries. So far, Gabaldon has released nine novels in the series.

Gabaldon has previously written an Outlander prequel novella called Virgins, which focused on young Jamie and Ian Murray years before they met Claire. However, Variety states that the prequel TV series may be entirely separate from that story.

Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe in Outlander. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Because of the show’s time travel conceit via the the standing stones, the series has already confirmed that Claire isn’t the first person to use them to travel into the past. Potentially, the prequel could even intertwine with the original series via the standing stones, if they share any characters in common.

Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan headline the series as Claire Beauchamp Fraser and Jamie MacKenzie Fraser, respectively. The series also features Richard Rankin as Roger MacKenzie, Sophie Skelton as Brianna “Bree” Fraser MacKenzie, David Berry as Lord John Grey, and John Bell as Ian Fraser Murray.

Outlander season 6 will premiere on Sunday, March 6. It will be the shortest season to date at only eight episodes. Fortunately, the series has already been renewed for a seventh season with 16 episodes.

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Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…

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However, it’s important to put Trek’s apparent failure into historical context as, given that most markets in the U.S. had only three television channels to choose from, even a low-rated show like Star Trek was being watched by about 20% of everyone watching television on a Thursday night, or roughly 10 million households. This year’s season of HBO’s Succession was viewed by roughly 8 million households a week, which makes it a hit by today's standards. Star Trek’s audience only grew once it went into reruns in the early 1970s, and by the time Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit theaters in 1979, it was a genuine cultural phenomenon. Today, the Star Trek franchise is considered one of the crown jewels of the Paramount library.
Though arguably outshined by its most prosperous spinoff, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Original Series holds up remarkably well for a vision of our future imagined nearly 60 years in our past. It’s a space adventure series that tackles social or political issues from what was, at the time, a daring and progressive perspective informed by the contemporary civil rights movement, sexual revolution, and backlash against the Vietnam War. Conveying these values through fanciful science fiction didn’t only allow its writers to get away with a lot of subversive messages, it also delivered them in a way that remains fun to watch decades later — fun enough that fans are willing to forgive when its ideas, or its special effects, crumble under modern scrutiny.
These 10 episodes, however, unquestionably stand the test of time, and thanks to the continuity-light nature of mid-20th century television, any one of them could be your first Star Trek episode. (Be aware, however, that the order in which classic Trek episodes are listed varies depending on the source. For our purposes, we’re using the numbering from streaming service Paramount+.)

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