Maril Davis has nothing to do with the wait for Outlander Season 7B

It’s time to stop attacking those involved in Outlander for the decisions of the network. Maril Davis has made it clear that she had nothing to do with this decision.

Last month, Starz finally shared when we would get to see Outlander Season 7B. Well, sort of. We know that it will come in November, but that’s all we know at this point. It’s a much longer wait than we expected. Personally, I had thought the summer at the latest, but I have shared my theories as to why Starz has opted for this.

To be honest, I don’t think Starz initially thought of opting for this long Droughtlander. I’m sure the strike action during the summer had a lot to do with it. The WGA strike meant that writing work on Outlander Season 8 was halted. The show also stood in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA actors, so that delayed things as well.

With a longer wait for Outlander Season 8, I’m sure Starz opted to make this Droughtlander longer to keep the next one shorter. It’s disappointing, and it is frustrating. A lot of fans are taking their frustrations out on the wrong person though.

Stop attacking Maril Davis for Starz’s decision

Executive producer Maril Davis took time to speak with The Daily Record about the decision. She made it clear that this was above her pay grade.

"I get a lot of questions about this online and unfortunately, this is completely out of my hands, it’s more of a STARZ decision and they obviously have their reasons for doing it, that’s a little above my pay grade"

The show isn’t involved in the scheduling decisions of the network. That is purely a network decision, and nothing the show creators can do will help to speed up the process.

As Davis says, Starz has their reasons behind the scheduling decisions. From a Droughtlander point of view, I do get why Starz will push back the return of the show to keep the last Droughtlander as short as possible. That doesn’t mean I like it, but I’m not going to attack Davis and others involved in the show for the decision made by the network.

Davis did share that when he plan changed for Outlander Season 6 to drop to eight episodes and the four episodes to get added to Season 7, there wasn’t a discussion on a break. She and the team believed there would be one, but there was no confirmation. And nobody could have really expected there to be such a long break. At the time of the initial decision, the strike action of last summer wasn’t even up for discussion.

"We just go in and we do what we’re told, we weren’t told in the beginning that there would be a break although we imagined there would be, there was probably going to be, but didn’t know for sure."

So, while fans are annoyed at Starz’s decisions, it’s time to step away from those involved in creating the show. Even the social media team won’t have known about the scheduling decisions to come. Put the blame where it belongs—on those who create the Starz schedule.