While a lot of eyes are on the upcoming series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, there is still a lot of focus on the original series. Outlander season 8 is still to arrive, and now we’ve got a hint of when it will come out.
At ClaireandJamie.com, we’d already said that 2026 was the likely Outlander season 8 premiere year, and now it seems like Sam Heughan is in agreement. While talking about the next role he’s landed, which is his dream role, he talked to Deadline about when the final season of the epic time-traveling love story will come to an end.
Outlander season 8 is likely coming “next year”
Heughan has been wrong in the past when it comes to release months for this series. A lot of people will remember when he said February for Outlander season 6 and it ended up being March. That was just a minor mistake, as it’s clear that STARZ was looking at around the same time as the release of Outlander season 5 two years earlier.
So, while he has been wrong before, we do think he’s right about Outlander season 8 coming in 2026. That makes the most sense considering Outlander: Blood of My Blood will arrive later this summer, and STARZ will want to encourage people to keep their subscriptions for as long as possible.
However, Heughan said “towards next year,” so there is still a slim chance that the end of 2025 is possible. I just don’t think it will be. If it happens at the end of 2025, I’ll be happy, but I’m setting myself up for a 2026 premiere date.
Sam Heughan has landed a dream role after Outlander
Now that Outlander has finished filming, Heughan and others are able to look at other, bigger projects. For Heughan, it’s all about going back to the stage for a short period of time. He’ll take on the role of the titular character in Macbeth, which will run at RCS’ The Other Place Studio in Stratford-Upon-Avon from Oct. 9, 2025, until Dec. 6, 2025.
This continues to make sense that a 2026 premiere date for Outlander season 8 is in store. By landing an on-stage role, Heughan will be tied up with that and won’t be able to do promotion for Outlander at the end of 2025. Promotional work happens in the lead-up but also during the season, and so, he’s likely going to be doing that toward the end of 2025 and into 2026.
"And it’s obviously a dream. I remember just going full circle like, going back to the very first show I ever did in youth theater. I was an extra on the main stage of the Royal Lyceum theatre in Edinburgh in a production ofMacbeth. And for me it’s The Scottish Play [for superstitious reasons, thespians often refer to Macbeth by that title] obviously, but it’s a play that’s super-exciting. It’s one of his shortest. It’s bloody. It’s got some incredible writing and some really fascinating character at the center of it. And I just remember being in the library as a drama student, reading books about various famous actors playing that role."
Heughan built his career in theater before landing TV and movie gigs, and it’s has a special piece of his heart. He is going full circle, as his first production was in Macbeth, although not in the lead. Now he gets a chance to show off how far he’s come as an actor, taking on this iconic role.
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