There are many television phenomena, but few like the one born from the pen of Diana Gabaldón in the 1990s, which reached the small screen in 2014 and expanded a year ago with a prequel. Because uniting passionate love stories with clan struggles, battles and time travel, set against the beautiful Scotland of the eighteenth century, is a formula that has captivated millions of viewers around the world and aims to keep doing so… For a long time.
Movistar Plus premieres today in our country the second season of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, the series that delves into the genealogical tree of the original characters, Claire and Jamie, to tell the story of their parents, Julia and Henry, Ellen and Brian. After a gripping first installment, the new episodes promise to be packed with action, because that is what the bonfires at the end of the first installment symbolized, and love, because if there is one thing the protagonists of this production are not willing to renounce, it is whom they love.
In autumn 2025, the series team set to work to shape the installment that has just premiered. And Mujerhoy had the opportunity to attend, in exclusive for Spain, the filming of the series. A journey in which we could talk with the protagonists, visit their sets and even see how one of the scenes starring Hermione Corfield and Jeremy Irvine, who play Julia and Henry in the series, was filmed. We will report all of this here in the coming weeks; for now we will reveal what Matthew B. Roberts, creator of the prequel, and Maril Davis, its executive producer, told us.
The Flashbacks on Which a Relationship Is Built
Although the journalists invited to the filming were in Edinburgh, Matthew B. Roberts and Maril spoke to us via video call, since they were immersed, precisely, in the filming of the second season of Outlander: Blood of My Blood. And even the creator himself and executive producer shared with the reporters, at the start of our chat, that he had just finished a meeting about the last block of episodes. But let’s go back to the beginning.
Hermione Corfield as Julia Moriston and Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beauchamp in an image from the second season of Outlander: Blood of My Blood.
Once it had been revealed how far his work had progressed, in terms of shooting preparations and story development, Matthew B. Roberts reviewed the dilemmas we face at the start of the second season of the prequel. “What will happen to Julia and Henry? Will they go back in time? Will Brian fight? What will happen to Ellen as she fights? That is our starting point,” he revealed. And although he feared revealing any spoiler that neither the press nor the actors themselves should know, he did want to delve into the uncertain fate of the couple formed by Henry and Julia, Claire’s parents.
Because although as viewers we want to see Henry and Julia together, for the fiction “to show how they build their love in flashbacks is the language we used in the first season and that we want to use in the second. This way the audience understands how they built their love and how much they truly love each other and therefore they need to be together again.” Although they must go through the most difficult moments of their lives.
The Battle Ahead
The creator of Outlander and of its prequel, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, also spoke of one of the most important moments of the new episodes, the Battle of Sheriffmuir, into which that call to the clans seen at the end of the previous season leads. “The first part of the season will consist of forming the team that will go to this confrontation, in which all our main characters will participate. As the season progresses we will see what happens afterward, the ramifications and the consequences, loyalties and betrayals.”
La relación entre Brian Fraser y Ellen McKenzie deberá sobreponerse a los obstáculos que surjan a partir de la batalla de Sheriffmuir.
This confrontation took place in 1715 near the Scottish town of Dunblane, and the British government forces clashed with the Jacobite clans. As we have already seen in the original production, this type of scene is one of the ‘house specialties’ of the Outlander universe, and it will feature, according to Roberts, ‘many characters we love, on both sides.’ But it will also have consequences for those who do not participate, as is presumably the case for Julia and Ellen.
In this regard Maril Davis, the series’ executive producer, pointed out that in the Outlander universe ‘the path to true love is never easy. Henry and Julia, and Ellen and Brian will face their share of obstacles in the second season. It’s not as if they could escape to Hawaii and sit on the beach. That’s never the case in Outlander.’ Although these obstacles are perhaps offset by the intimate scenes that are also one of the hallmarks of the fiction and that for Davis are ‘like a language of love between the characters and a way of communicating with each other. We will continue to see that intimacy in both couples’.
The Secret to Success
For the duo of creators, the keys to the success of the Outlander universe are several but very clear. According to Matthew B. Roberts, ‘there are two elements we mention frequently: one is the historical setting, that it is well grounded and that we ensure it is correct. But it is also a fantasy series and, as such, a way of escape for people. But fantasy has to feel real and rooted through the characters, and that is what the period setting does’.
El destino de Julia y Henry es una de las principales incógnitas de la segunda temporada de Outlander: Sangre de mi sangre.
Roberts also adds the importance of the love story. Not a fleeting romance, but the epic love story as a whole. I think that creates longing and the people who come to the series like that part because they find satisfaction there. To build it, as Davis had noted previously, it is important that there be obstacles in the path of our characters. And how they overcome them because humans seek love in some way, just like the Disney princesses.
Davis, for her part, points to escapism as the main value of the series because who wouldn’t want to traverse the stones and find out how you fare or if you survive? I myself have said that I would probably survive two days in 18th-century Scotland, but it’s a lot of fun. And as Matt noted, it is also romantic. And indeed, according to Roberts, you don’t see pure love stories on television like Outlander.
