Wizard World Chicago: What we learned at Sam Heughan’s panel

It’s always so exciting when you hear your favorite actor will be at a fan convention. Especially during Droughtlander, we’re always eager for new content. Our dashing Jamie Fraser, Sam Heughan, was at Wizard World Chicago!

Our favorite Scot took part in a Q&A panel and was joined by our beloved Murtagh, Duncan Lacroix, in the second half. There was supposed to be one more person to make for a special trio – Graham McTavish. Though he had to cancel last minute due to COVID.

There’s a number of you lovely Sassenachs who probably couldn’t make it. If you missed it, dinna fash! We were there and have all the details for you.

Check out the highlights from Sam’s panel below!

Sam Heughan’s panel

About Outlander Season 6

As you can guess, Sam, unfortunately, couldn’t give us many details or information about Outlander Season 6. But, there are a few new tidbits he shared:

• Though the episode count is shorter with only eight episodes, the run time of those episodes will be longer than previous seasons. That’s verra good news indeed!
• Sam is excited for us to see the new season, especially the first episode which he called strong. (As a reminder, the premiere will be 90 minutes!).
• Because the Christies are coming, there’s a lot of “religious speak” and those lines were harder for him to memorize.
• This season was filmed out of order a lot because they were trying to get the necessary shots of Caitriona before she got too big. “And she got big,” joked Sam.
• A combination of the cold weather and all the COVID protocols made this a tough season to shoot, but Sam is “really happy because this new season is fantastic.”
• They are now prepping for Outlander Season 7.

About Sam 

We love the show, characters, and of course the actors! We want to know all about the upcoming season, but it’s also fun to learn more about those who bring our favorite characters to life. And who wouldn’t want to learn more about the charming Sam Heughan?

• Sam usually memorizes his lines before he goes to sleep and wakes up mostly knowing them. Though there are times where he’s learning his lines as he’s sitting in his makeup chair the day of!
• “What’s one thing you don’t like about Jamie?” Sam would love for the Scottish Highlander to have a day off, stay at home, or read a book instead of getting “in everyone’s business.” Though that’s hard when Claire forces him to get into people’s business (Sam’s words, not mine!). The actor likes to play his character when Jamie is funny, tempestuous, or angry.
•  Sam would bring back Murtagh and the original Highlanders (except Dougal!). “I enjoyed killing him off.”
• Sam tried to get Graham to do more activities on Men in Kilts but anything that was physically dangerous like kayaking, Graham refused.
• In his new movie, Everest, Sam is playing Australian climber George Finch. He’d like to lose some weight for the role since Finch was “slim and wiry.”
• He hopes his new movie Text for You will be out next year.
• We all know how busy Sam was with all sorts of projects and while he’s enjoyed all the different jobs “obviously Outlander is home and it’s so nice to be back there.”

Outlander Wizard World Chicago panel. Image courtesy Aysha Ashley Househ

Outlander Wizard World Chicago panel. Image courtesy Aysha Ashley Househ

Sam and Duncan Lacroix

For those who have seen Sam and Duncan together, you know what these two friends are like. Duncan is a really funny person. Add that in with Sam and this duo is making you laugh!

• Duncan Lacroix later joined Sam on stage during the panel. The duo started it off with calling Graham McTavish at the same time to see whose call Graham would accept. The answer? He picked up for his favorite person, Sam, of course! Poor Duncan got ignored.
• Duncan constantly made Graham laugh right before they had to start a scene.
• As the leader of the Regulators, Duncan thinks Murtagh’s face should be on Mount Rushmore. Uh, yes. Completely agree!
• The Duke of Sandringham actor, Simon Callow, is scared of Duncan! For one scene, Duncan was trying to go Method and got so caught up in it that he was shoving Simon around and inadvertently spitting on him and he said, “I think that Duncan is a psychopath.”
• Duncan found out while filming Outlander Season 2 that Murtagh wasn’t going to be killed off. One reason the show made this choice was because they wanted to keep some continuity for fans since most of the other original cast die at Culloden. One idea was that they would discover Murtagh in the West Indies in Outlander Season 3 instead, but ended up going with the Regulators storyline. “I was very privileged to come back on the show and become the Silver Fox,” said Duncan.
• The blood during Murtagh’s death scene was sugary syrup so Duncan had wasps landing on his neck and face, but he mostly didn’t care. Very brave of him! I could never.
• They had to reshoot the death scene because “we were rubbish,” said Sam and “because it was so bad,” joked Duncan. No, of course, they weren’t! The reshoot happened because there was a continuity error.
• The two talked about deleted scenes. Sam said many hours are cut and thinks they had around 20 hours of footage just from the wedding in Outlander Season 1. There was also supposed to be a big funeral at Fraser’s Ridge for Murtagh that was cut.
• Duncan is pursuing degrees in philosophy and psychology.
• Who’s most likely to flub a line? Duncan!

For more photos and video from Sam Heughan’s panel, check out our Twitter page!

What did you think of Sam Heughan’s panel at Wizard World Chicago? What are you looking forward to in Outlander Season 6? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Outlander Season 6 premieres sometime in early 2022 on STARZ.