Outlander prequel series is in development at Starz

It’s just a little over a week until the premiere of the sixth season of Outlander, but fans will be pleased to know that there could be a whole new Outlander series on the way. Variety has reported that an Outlander prequel is in development at Starz with a writers’ room currently being assembled.

Based on the series of the same name by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander stars Caitríona Balfe as Claire Randall, a married military nurse in Scotland in 1945 who finds herself transported back in time to 1743. She encounters, and falls in love with, a Highland warrior named Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and becomes embroiled in the Jacobite rising. Outlander executive producer and showrunner Matthew B. Roberts is attached to write and executive produce the Outlander prequel, with work expected to begin in the coming weeks. Ronald D. Moore, who developed Outlander, will also executive produce the prequel series.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Diana Gabaldon has recently teased on Facebook that she’s working on a prequel novel about Ellen MacKenzie and Brian Fraser, the parents of Jamie. She also a prequel novella nearly a decade ago that followed a young Jamie Fraser and Ian Murray in 1740’s France, but it’s not known if any of those stories will influence the prequel. The sixth season of Outlander is set to debut on Starz on March 6th and a seventh season has already been ordered. It’s been close to two years since the fifth season wrapped up, but production on the sixth was delayed due to the pandemic, so fans have been waiting quite some time for the return of Claire and Jamie.