The Droughtlander isn’t treating fans any better despite knowing that the crew is working day and night to bring the next ambitious chapter in the story of Jamie and Claire to Starz. Besides, we can take heart in the fact that showrunners Ronald D. Moore and Maril Davis are sticking to the Outlander books by and large.
Indeed, based on a report by Deadline, two new actors are joining season 7 in the form of Snow White and the Huntsman‘s Izzy Meikle-Small and Billy Elliot‘s Joey Phillips. They’re set to portray Rachel Hunter and Denzel Hunter from the books, a Quaker brother and sister whose life gets tangled with the Frasers when Young Ian takes a wounded William Ransom (Jamie’s son) to their farm.
Denzel is a physician planning to join the Revolutionary Army due to his firm beliefs in ideas of liberty and justice for all. His sister Rachel is also a fiery spirit that leaves quite an impression on everyone she comes across. The two will play an important role in the whopping 18-episode seventh season.
The last time we heard of Outlander season 7, Sam Heughan revealed that they were already working on the sixth episode, which, given the fact that they’d only started shooting a month or two prior, signifies an impressive pace. Still, 18 episodes is a lot of television to produce in under a year, so it’s going to be a while until we hear anything concrete about release windows.
That said, the producers might decide to split the upcoming season into two parts with a few months setting them apart, but since fans are still complaining about the shortened season 6, we wouldn’t lose any sleep over the possibility of Outlander returning any sooner than mid-2023.