‘Outlander’ Season 7: Who Is Rachel Hunter?
Outlander Season 7 will see the arrival of a character named Rachel Hunter. The social media accounts of the Starz time-traveling drama recently announced that Izzy Meikle-Small — best known for playing young Kathy H. in 2010’s Never Let Me Go — has been cast in the role. Who is Rachel Hunter in Outlander? Here’s what we know about the character from Diana Gabaldon’s seventh book An Echo in the Bone.
Warning: Outlander Season 7 spoilers ahead!
‘Outlander’ announces Denzell and Rachel Hunter will arrive in season 7
In book seven of Gabaldon’s Outlander literary series, readers meet Denzell Hunter and his sister Rachel after the start of the American Revolutionary War. It’s the summer of 1777, and Denzell (known as Denny among friends) and Rachel are living the quiet country life in a Quaker settlement when Young Ian (John Bell) arrives at their farm with an injured William Ransom (Charles Vandervaart).
Fans of the books were expecting the Hunters to arrive in season 7, and they were proven right when the Outlander Twitter account announced that Meikle-Small had been cast as Rachel and Joey Phillips as Denzell.
“We have our Hunters! Please welcome @izzy_meikle (Rachel) and @joeyphillips92 (Denzell) to the world of #Outlander,” the official Outlander Twitter account shared.
Who is Rachel Hunter?
Rachel and her brother are liberty lovers who want to get involved in the Revolutionary war, despite their peaceful religion. The siblings became Quakers when their parents died and the local Religious Society of Friends took them in as orphans. Their mom died when Rachel was born, then their father drowned three years later.
While Denny apprenticed and learned the medical trade — traveling to Philadelphia and London — Rachel stayed with the women in her village and kept his house for him.
When Denny returned home and the Revolutionary War loomed, the Quakers determined the best course would be for America to reconcile with England. But Denny believed liberty was a gift from God, and he wanted to fight with the colonists.
After Young Ian and William arrive, Rachel and Denzell sell their house and travel north to join the Continental army at Fort Ticonderoga. Denny joins the war effort as a surgeon, and Rachel as a camp follower. When the Hunters make it to the fort, they meet Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe).
Rachel gets engaged to Young Ian in ‘Outlander’ book 7
At Fort Ticonderoga, Rachel meets Young Ian again and they start to develop feelings for one another. But because he is a man of violence and she is a Quaker, Rachel tells Ian “they mustn’t” after he kisses her for the first time.
Ian is later forced to go on the run when he kills a man, and Rachel offers to take care of his beloved dog Rollo — who is wounded — in his absence. Two years later, Ian returns from Scotland looking for Rachel. But it takes a long time — and a lot of drama — for them to reconnect.
When the time and circumstances are finally right, Ian and Rachel come together and watch the British army leave Philadelphia together. He tells her he would become a Quaker for her, but it would be against his nature. She tells him that she knows he’s a wolf, but he is her wolf.
If the Outlander TV series follows Gabaldon’s seventh book, Young Ian and Rachel Hunter will be engaged before the season is over.
Season 7 of Outlander premieres on Starz in late 2022 or early 2023.
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