STARZ announced today that production is underway on the first season of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, a prequel series to its highly popular time-traveling drama, Outlander. As with the flagship series, the 10-episode season will be filmed in Scotland.
STARZ has also confirmed the casting of four key roles in the series with Harriet Slater (Pennyworth, Belgravia: The Next Chapter), Jamie Roy (Condor’s Nest, Flowers and Honey), Hermione Corfield (The Road Dance, We Hunt Together), and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) leading the cast.
As previously announced, Outlander: Blood of My Blood will explore the lives and the relationship of Jamie’s parents, Ellen MacKenzie (Slater) and Brian Fraser (Roy). STARZ confirmed today that the series would also explore the origin story of Claire’s parents, Julia Moriston (Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Irvine).
The series will center on these two parallel love stories set in two different time periods, with Jamie’s parents in the early 18th century Scottish Highlands and Claire’s parents in WWI England.
“We’re thrilled to be telling the stories of these two couples. The origins of their relationships explore universal themes that transcend time periods, and we’re so excited for fans to discover and fall in love with these characters and their love stories the way they have with Claire and Jamie,” says Matthew B. Roberts, showrunner, executive producer and writer on both series.
Outlander, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary this summer, will be airing the back eight episodes of its seventh season later this year and has been confirmed for a 10-episode eighth season, which will begin production shortly in Scotland.
In addition to Roberts, Ronald D. Moore will also executive produce Outlander: Blood of My Blood, along with Maril Davis. Moore and Davis developed Outlander for television under their production banner, Tall Ship Productions.
Story Mining & Supply Company will also executive produce, and Diana Gabaldon will serve as a consulting producer. Outlander: Blood of My Blood is produced by Sony Pictures Television. The series will be available across all STARZ (try it free – #ad) platforms in the U.S. and Canada.
The Outlander television series is inspired by Diana Gabaldon’s international best-selling books, which have sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, with all nine of the books gracing the New York Times best-seller list. The Outlander television series has become a worldwide success with audiences, spanning the genres of history, science fiction, romance, and adventure in one amazing tale.
OUTLANDER: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD CAST
HARRIET SLATER – Ellen MacKenzie
Harriet Slater was born in Leicester, England, and caught the acting bug early, at six years of age, through involvement with the ‘Little Theatre,’ home of the hundred-year-old Leicester Drama Society, which counts Lord Richard Attenborough as one of its most famous members. Having performed in dozens of musicals and plays during her youth, the Society gave Slater the foundations and confidence to pursue acting as her career.
At the age of 19, she relocated to Guildford to attend drama school. Slater studied dramatic arts at Guildford School of Acting before moving to London and signing with a prestigious talent agency. Slater’s first professional job was a three-person play at Theatre Royal in Plymouth.
The play, about cycling, required the cast to peddle on static bikes for the full duration of the play! Off the back of her run at the Theatre Royal, she completed six months with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a play called “Vice Versa.”
She quickly followed that by landing her first TV role as Sandra Onslow, club singer and Alfred Pennyworth’s love interest in three seasons of the high-profile Pennyworth, a highly stylized deep dive into the life of the Wayne family butler of Batman fame.
On completing Pennyworth, Slater jumped straight into production on three feature films: a small role in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, as one of three leads in The Haunting in Wicker Park, and another horror feature film called Tarot, which is set for a release on May 10, 2024.
Most recently, Slater can be seen as the lead character of Clara Dunn in Julian Fellowes’ Belgravia: The Next Chapter.
Slater is repped by Sandra Chalmers at The Artists Partnership UK and Untitled US.
JAMIE ROY – Brian Fraser
Jamie Roy was born in Greenock and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. He has lived in America for a number of years, where he has developed his career. Roy’s credits include Condor’s Nest, Your Boyfriend is Mine, Squeaky Clean Mysteries: Hazardous Duty, Flowers and Honey, Burning Little Lies, and Picture Perfect Lies.
Roy is a keen and talented golfer and rugby player. He is represented by Carolyn Cutler at Patrick Hambleton Management (London) and Daryn Simons @ Cohesive Entertainment Group (LA).
HERMIONE CORFIELD – Julia Moriston
Hermione Corfield has had an extensive career on screen. Her film, The Road Dance, won the 2021 Audience Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Her other film credits include Sea Fever, The Misfits, Born a King, Rust Creek, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Fallen, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Mr. Holmes, and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.
For television, she starred as Freddy in We Hunt Together, which is currently in its second season. She also previously starred in the period drama series The Halcyon, co-starring Olivia Williams, Jamie Blackley, and Kara Tointon. Corfield has just wrapped production on the thriller Family Secrets.
JEREMY IRVINE – Henry Beauchamp
Jeremy Irvine is an English stage and screen actor. He attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before catching Hollywood’s eye by starring in Steven Spielberg’s 2011 epic war film War Horse, which went on to receive a Best Picture nomination for the 2012 Academy Awards and Golden Globes.
Irvine earned widespread critical acclaim for his role opposite Dakota Fanning in the independent film Now Is Good, leading critics to list him among Hollywood’s fastest-rising stars. In 2013, he dropped more than 25 pounds and performed his own torture scene stunts in the film adaptation of The Railway Man.
In 2018, Jeremy played the younger version of Pierce Brosnan’s character Sam in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again opposite Lily James and directed by Ol Parker.
His recent credits include Leopardi & Co, Return to Silent Hill, Baghead, This Is Christmas, Dalgliesh, Treadstone, and The Last Full Measure with Christopher Plummer and Samuel L. Jackson.
His other notable credits include Paradise Hills, Billionaire Boys Club, The Professor and The Madman, Fallen, The World Made Straight, Stonewall, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, and Beyond the Reach, in which he stars alongside Michael Douglas.
Mirko Parlevliet has been reporting on the entertainment industry since 1998 and founded Vital Thrills in 2018 to cover the latest news on streaming, movies, TV, and video games.