Will Outlander: Blood of My Blood have a shorter run than Outlander?

STARZ CEO Jeff Hirsch recently shared an update that suggests a show like Outlander isn’t going to happen again. While we do have Outlander: Blood of My Blood greenlit, it doesn’t look like it will go on for as long as the main series.

Is that definitely going to be the case? Well, it all comes down to the cost of shows going up. STARZ runs a similar model to Netflix and Amazon. As shows get into their third seasons, the costs for them go up exponentially due to the cast pay rising. Hirsch has said that there’s a push to have more newer shows to replace content as it reaches the third and fourth seasons.

With that in mind, it looks like Outlander: Blood of My Blood has a shelf life. While Outlander is going on for eight seasons, it looks like the max the prequel could go on for is four.

Does Outlander: Blood of My Blood need more than four seasons?

We could argue that this prequel series doesn’t need to go on for as long as the OG series. The flagship show is based on a huge set of books. They have needed far more than the eight seasons we had to tell the story in full, but it is what it is. That’s the nature of TV.

Outlander tells this epic tale of Claire and Jamie. We see the story span decades. That’s not the case with the prequel story.

Initially, the prequel story was only about Jamie’s parents. This already had a shelf life in terms of how long the story could go on for. Ellen MacKenzie Fraser dies in childbirth, and we know that Brian dies while Jamie is imprisoned at Fort William.

Even with the inclusion of Claire’s parents, we still know what happens to them. They die in a car crash when Claire is just five.

This suggests that the series isn’t really going to need more than three or four seasons, anyway. While we hope it’s more than a limited series, STARZ’s comments about finding new shows as older ones get to the three-season mark isn’t as much of a concern. Three or four seasons should be enough for a complete story.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood is currently filming and it will come to STARZ.