25 Days of MacBree-mas Day 14: Happy castiversary, Richard Rankin!

On this day in history, Richard Rankin was announced as Roger Wakefield MacKenzie in Outlander. Here’s a spotlight on the casting to mark four years.

For Day 14 of the 25 Days of MacBree-mas, we’re focusing on the castiversary of the day. Four years ago today, Richard Rankin was announced as the face of Roger in Outlander Season 2.

It certainly brought plenty of excitement. Up to this point, we’d received casing for King Louis, Le Comte St. Germain, Mary Hawkins, and Master Raymond, among other smaller parts for the second season. This was the first of the roles that would go onto play major parts in the future seasons.

We knew that the casting for Roger had to be perfect. Getting the wrong actor would lead to problems in future seasons, whether it was quality in the acting or bad chemistry with a co-star. But once Rankin was announced, many fans knew that Outlander had chosen a star.

Like when Jamie and Claire were cast, Roger was cast before Brianna. After that, the casting team could find someone who would have chemistry with Rankin, which would lead to Sophie Skelton being announced as Brianna about six weeks later.

And here we are now. There’s no doubt that Richard Rankin is an extremely popular member of the Outlander cast. Fans know him for a variety of roles he’s done in the past and have followed him to this series. Then there are others who finally get to see their Roger play out on the screen (although I know some of you complain about the beard).

I’m sure the series doesn’t regret the choice to cast Richard. We certainly don’t!

Happy castiversary, Richard Rankin! Follow Claire and Jamie on Facebook for more 25 Days of MacBree-mas.