An Exclusive Sneak Peek at the First Episodes of ‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood'

Elle

7 days ago

In a meadow splayed like a blanket between the peaks of the Scottish Highlands, Jamie Roy and Harriet Slater appear to be alone. The actors' voices are barely audible from within the crumbling cemetery where they've reunited—though the boom mics looming above their heads will solve that problem later. On the horizon, a torrent of machine-generated fog dissolves into the grass, dotted with clover and yellow violets that the surrounding crew members crush underfoot as they huddle beneath a cluster of tents. Together, they help take Scotland back in time: to 1714, the setting of the Starz Outlander prequel series Blood of My Blood , set to premiere on August 8.
It's late June 2024 when I step onto this set with a group of other journalists, but the air is crisp enough to warrant a cardigan. Both Roy and Slater are well-outfitted for the climate: In the signature garb of Clans Fraser and MacKenzie, respectively, they look as traditionally Scottish as the hilltops surrounding them. As Roy later tells me, he teared up the first time he put on the costume of Brian Fraser (father of Outlander 's Jamie), one of the series' four lead protagonists. 'It was actually really emotional, seeing those Fraser colors on the tartan, wearing those for the first time,' he says. 'I was like, 'Wow. This is really happening.''
The scene I'm watching is one of several in which Roy and Slater's characters must meet in secret, as the romance between their characters—Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie—is strictly forbidden. (As Slater puts it, they've 'kind of got a Romeo and Juliet vibe' going on.) Eventually, they'll overcome their clans' rivalry to become parents to Jamie, as played by Sam Heughan in the now-iconic flagship series. But, for now, they're still young, in love, and in danger. Sanne Gault
Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser and Harriet Slater as Ellen MacKenzie.
Hundreds of years later and hundreds of miles away—though, in reality, the two sets are within driving distance of each other—Hermione Corfield sits in a cramped attic flat. As the 20th-century Londoner Julia Moriston, she must navigate a romantic dilemma of her own. She's in love with a soldier on the frontlines of World War I, and she's never once seen his face. But, as Outlander fans will already know, the passionate letters she sends to Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine) don't go unrequited. Eventually, Julia and Henry, too, will come together, later becoming the parents of Caitriona Balfe's Claire Beauchamp, Outlander 's beloved Sassenach.
As these exclusive first-look images from the first two episodes of Outlander: Blood of my Blood reveal, the earliest meetings between the show's lead couples—Brian and Ellen, and Julia and Henry—are pivotal moments. And they're as loaded with magic as the time travel that soon intertwines their stories.
While Julia begins the series yearning for her soldier, we're first introduced to Ellen as a grieving daughter. Her father, Red Jacob MacKenzie (Peter Mullan), once promised his eldest child she'd never have to marry. But Jacob's sudden death makes Ellen a political pawn in the hands of her younger brothers, Colum (Séamus McLean Ross) and Dougal (Sam Retford), who each seek the now-vacant MacKenzie lairdship. Ellen has no interest in the marriage matches they lay out for her. Unbeknownst to them, she's already found her soulmate.
Brian and Ellen initially collide by accident, but their first planned rendezvous takes place on a bridge revealed in the Blood of My Blood trailer—in a meadow not unlike the one I visited last summer. They begin the scene on opposite ends of the stone structure, uncertain how to proceed, given the scandalous nature of their meeting. (Without a chaperone, Ellen is endangering her reputation as a maiden.) But 'there is this magnetic connection between the two of them,' Roy says, and neither can resist creeping slowly toward each other until, at last, their hands touch. They're meant to be sworn enemies, but the fairies seem to have other plans. Sanne Gault
Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser and Harriet Slater as Ellen MacKenzie.
A sentiment repeated frequently throughout my visit is that Scotland 'is its own character' in both Outlander and Outlander: Blood of my Blood . But the country's infamous weather doesn't pay much heed to call times. Roy says he and Slater had been looking forward to shooting the bridge scene 'for ages, because it's been with us since day one': They rehearsed it throughout their auditions and chemistry reads. But on the actual day of filming, 'we had four different seasons,' he says. 'It was blowing a gale, then it downpoured, then it started to sleet.' The river running beneath the bridge—all but a murmur in the finalized episode—was loud enough that both Roy and Slater had to use earpieces to understand each other. 'Half the time mine wouldn't work,' he continues. 'So I would see Harriet start to say something, her mouth would move, and then it would stop, and I'd be like, 'Oh, okay! My turn!' So that was quite funny.'
'Luckily we both knew each other's lines,' Slater adds.
By the time they'd survived multiple rain delays and filmed several angles, the actors were both so cold that Roy wasn't sure he could speak. 'I couldn't feel my face at the end of each take,' he says. 'I wasn't even sure if words were coming out.' During their lunch break, he had to massage his mouth for 'half an hour, because I couldn't actually chew my food.'
Of course, the weather cooperated just in time to give the scene the air of enchantment it needed to convince audiences Jamie and Ellen are indeed headed for a life-changing love affair. The wind whips up as Brian steps forward; the gloom parts to wash them both in sunlight.
'[Jamie] has this line where he introduces himself for the first time, and he says, 'I'm Brian Fraser,' and [at one point] the sun just came out from behind the cloud behind him,' Slater tells me, laughing. 'It was almost like he was the Messiah.' Sanne Gault
Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beauchamp and Hermione Corfield as Julia Moriston.
Julia and Henry's first meeting is no less fateful, though it was perhaps easier to film. Shot on a set of steps in Glasgow's Park District, the scene depicts the couple passing each other by chance in 1917 London. But the 'magnetic draw between them,' Corfield says, is as potent as the one between Brian and Ellen. When Henry speaks aloud a line from their letters, Julia turns around, recognizing her soon-to-be husband in the flesh. 'We were both wondering how that was going to play,' Corfield admits. 'Because, on the page, it's quite interesting just seeing two people not saying anything, walking past each other on a step, and then one person says something and they both go, 'It's you.' It worked because of the romance between them.'
Adds Irvine, '[Henry] tries his luck and says something, and it is her. We were joking, myself and Hermione, saying, 'How many other women has he been saying that to that day?'' But Outlander has always existed in a world where anything can happen. When Irvine asked showrunner Matthew B. Roberts about the logic of the scene, Roberts told him, 'Look, this is a romance that's got to have some magic about it.' Irvine continues, 'I didn't really understand that until I saw the episode cut together. I went, 'Yeah, this is something slightly out of this world.' If you believe in fate, and destiny, and soulmates, then this is how it happens.'
That magic only intensifies when Julia and Henry's saga intersects with Brian and Henry's. On holiday in Scotland in the 20th century, Julia and Henry inadvertently tumble through time after encountering Outlander 's infamous stones of Craigh na Dun. They separately land in Scotland circa 1714, and they soon meet both the MacKenzies and the Frasers as they fight their way back to each other. Sanne Gault
Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beauchamp and Hermione Corfield as Julia Moriston.
Corfield was thrilled when she learned that, like Outlander , Blood of My Blood would feature a time-travel plot. 'It's a challenge to play someone that's time-traveled,' she says, 'I don't know any other job where you can possibly say that you are both in the [20th century] and also 1700 Scotland. So it was a challenge, but when I first started reading all the scenes taking place [in the 18th century], I was really excited.'
It helps that the lead quartet have become close friends. 'We became actual mates before we had to become colleagues,' Irvine says. 'We spent a few months up here getting ready for the role and doing what production called 'boot camp,' learning all the things that we need to learn for the roles. In that time, we all became very close.' They often spend their evenings and weekends off set together, either singing karaoke in Glasgow or picnicking along one of the country's many lochs. 'We started this project in the depths of winter in Scotland,' Irvine continues. 'When you're doing that, you've got to go and have fun sometimes.' Sanne Gault
Hermione Corfield as Julia Moriston. Sanne Gault
Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beauchamp.
This summer, Roy, Slater, Corfield, and Irvine are all back in the meadows of Scotland, already filming the next chapter. 'I feel very privileged to be shooting a season 2 before season 1's even come out,' Slater says. 'I'm very aware of how rare that is.'
Roy shares in that sentiment. 'When we finished the last season, there was no guarantee,' he says. 'It's a spinoff. We don't know [if it will work]. So to get that call that says, 'Hey, we're going to do this again, and you get to revisit these characters and this story?' It is really just a privilege. I hope we get to do it for as long as possible.' Breaking Down the Outlander Family Tree