Outlander Season 6 Is Finally Here! Find Out Everything You Want to Know About the Cast, Spoilers and How to Watch

Author:
Paulette Cohn
Mar 6, 2022

Sam Heughan, Caitriona Balfe and the rest of the cast and producers of Outlander are promising fans a great Season 6 that'll be worth the wait now that the Starz series finally returned on Sunday, March 6.

As any Outlander obsessive knows, bringing Season 6 to fruition has been anything but easy. Heughan, who stars as Jamie, told UK's Daily Record back in March 2021, "We started in January and it's going well. Obviously, it's been tough with COVID protocols, but also the weather in Scotland has been pretty horrendous. The snow has been bad, but it feels like the spring is finally here. There is hope around the corner!"

As a result of the difficulties that the COVID-19 pandemic brought about while filming the new season in 2020, Outlander Season 6 has been reduced to eight episodes, which premiered on Sunday, March 6, 2022. But what it lacks in quantity, it seems it'll more than make up for in quality. In November 2021, Outlander author Diana Gabaldon revealed about the upcoming season, "This is the first season where I have not had a single episode that I found less likeable... The season is extremely good throughout.”

Outlander showrunner Matthew B. Roberts has added, “We are excited to get into the editing room to work on bringing the fans one step closer to reuniting with the family back on Fraser’s Ridge. Filming in 2021 has presented an unprecedented set of challenges which led us to the decision to truncate the season in order to bring the fans the most vibrant and dynamic season as soon as possible. Dinna fash, we will then film an extended season seven with 16 episodes next year as life returns to normalcy.”

The new season picks up where Season 5 ended, with the Frasers and the MacKenzies healing from the traumas and the losses they experienced. But they are all reunited as a family and that will make them strong as they face what lies ahead.

Of course, the core family members are returning, including Heughan's Jamie, Balfe's Claire, Sophie Skelton as Brianna Randall MacKenzie and Richard Rankin as Roger MacKenzie.

Keep reading for everything we know about Outlander Season 6 so far—including all the teasers, spoilers, cast pics and previews we can find, as well as what Heughan has said about Season 6's tumultuous storylines.

**When is Outlander coming back for Season 6?**

Season 6 of Outlander premiered on Sunday, March 6, 2022 with an extended debut episode. It will also debut on that date in the U.K. via STARZPLAY.

Are there any Outlander spoilers for Season 6?

Yes, and as Season 6 approached, the cast and creative team behind the show are sharing more and more of them every day.

For example, Heughan told Men's Health on March 1, "Jamie's past comes back to haunt him, an old adversary in the shape of a man called Tom Christie. He was also a fellow intimate in prison with Jamie years ago, and now he comes to live on Fraser's Ridge with his family, and they really signal the beginning of the decay of the Frasers' power." Heughan added, "The Frasers have become affluent. The town has grown. Jamie and his wife Claire almost seem to be like chiefs. They're very good landowners, but with the arrival of this new family, we really start to see people's support and loyalty to Frasers start to wane, and it signals the beginning of change in Fraser's Ridge."

Speaking of Jamie and his wife Claire, Heughan also recently told Radio Times that the two will enjoy more onscreen, one-on-one quality time than perhaps ever before. "We do somehow spend more time with them. There are some lovely moments where you see Jamie and Claire just being in each other's company," he noted.

On Jan. 22, Starz shared a sitdown with Heughan in which he similarly said about his Outlander alter ego, "Jamie's past almost catches up with him... or comes back to haunt him, per se. We meet some characters that come back into Jamie's life and some are good and some are more unsettling." He added, "This season, we've had the buildup to this War of Independence, this revolution, and Jamie Fraser's very much been part of that. He's been on the side of the British. He knows they're the losing side. As we get closer to that point, the stakes are higher... but also Fraser's Ridge, there's a revolution within the home as well."

On Jan. 10, Starz dropped a similar Q&A with Bell. "In the beginning of Season 6, he's in a much better place. He knows where home is, I think, in his heart," Bell revealed about what's in store for his onscreen alter ego. "He's still struggling with his identity a little bit; he's between the two cultures, but he's now finding his path again back to his family."

On Jan. 3, Starz shared a behind-the-scenes interview with Rankin, who opened up about what'll be in store for Roger this season. "I think where we find Roger and Brianna in Season 6 is more together than you've ever seen them. They've both embraced and accepted the 18th century as their home. In Season 5, you know, they tried and failed to go back to their time," Ranking said. "But for Roger, I don't think he quite realized that it was more home to him than he thought... So then it just becomes about, what is our purpose as a family here, settled, where we're gonna spend our life."

On Dec. 28, Heughan told Good Morning America, "It's Outlander. There's everything there. There's history, romance, adventure. It's a shorter season due to COVID and some of the challenges we faced but the episodes are longer.... it's just a great season. It's dark, it's exciting; the fans are really gonna love it."

Heughan also said in a video shared by Outlander's official social media accounts right before Christmas 2021, "Well, I think Jamie's past almost catches up with him slightly [in Season 6] or comes back to haunt him, per se." He also teased that in the next batch of episodes, "We meet some characters that come back into Jamie's life, and some are good and some are more unsettling. This season, we've had the build up to this war of independence, this revolution. Jamie Fraser's very much been part of that. He's been on the side of the British. He knows they're the losing side and as we get closer to that point, the stakes are higher." Perhaps most curiously, he also teased that Season 6 would see "a revolution in the home as well."

Previously, Balfe had revealed in a Dec. 14 Zoom interview, "I got to explore some things with Claire this season that I haven't before. When you're talking about the sixth season of a TV show, that you get to find out new things about your character and explore them in a new way, that's, like amazing."

She added, "I think after the events that happened at the end of Season 5... Claire needs a long time to really heal. And I think she might be known to be a little bit stubborn, but I think she doesn't allow herself the time to do that. One of the things that she discovers is that her old way with dealing of things and her old coping mechanisms... it doesn't serve her very much anymore. So she's having to discover whole new things about herself."

But wait, there's more! As for Jamie, Balfe said, "Her and Jamie's relationship is obviously going to have to evolve because of that too, and we have a lot of new people at the ridge and this looming Revolutionary War—all of these things are happening. There's lots; even though its' a truncated season, there's lots going on."

Before Balfe's latest spoiler, the series' cast and creators have spoken at length about how Season 6 will compare in feel, style and tone to previous seasons, while also leaking some plot points here and there.

For example, at Outlander's New York Comic-Con panel in October 2021, the panel host reportedly asked at one point, “Did I hear something about a well being built?” In response, Heughan wound up confirming that Bree "designs the well, I think”—then immediately confessed, “That’s a spoiler!”

Executive producers Roberts and Maril Davis have teased on an official Outlander podcast that the coming season will be a dark one.

“There are some very traumatic and very emotional times,” Davis said. “It’s a difficult season for Jamie and Claire and everyone.”

Davis has also said, “Jamie and Claire, their love deepens; Roger and Brianna, they have their own journey, and something fun and new happens with them. Caitlin O’Ryan, who plays Lizzie, has a great story, and she is such a phenomenal actress. There are just so many exciting things.”

Balfe spoke more on that subject to EW, saying that the arrival of the Christie family at Fraser’s Ridge will shake things up, especially Malva Christie (Reynolds), who has a secret life.

“Outlander does baddies and villains quite well,” Balfe said. “[The Christies] aren’t your typical villains, which is great and refreshing. Claire and Malva build a great relationship and bond. It’s very destabilizing for Claire. It’s a really heartbreaking, but a really twisted narrative th