Outlander stars Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe as Jamie and Claire Fraser in an image from season 8

‘Outlander’ Star Sam Heughan May Have Just Confirmed Exactly How the Show Will End

After announcing that the STARZ hit ‘Outlander’ will come to an end with an eighth and final season, Sam Heughan may have also hinted exactly how it will end.

by Perry Carpenter

Published on February 9, 2023

3 min read

‘Outlander’ will have 8 seasons, but Diana Gabaldon is writing 10 books

Since its premiere in 2014, each season of Outlander has essentially told the story of author Diana Gabaldon’s corresponding book — a one-book-per-season production model. She’s been writing the Outlander novel series since 1991, and has made it clear there will be 10 books in total.

This led to the fan expectation that Outlander would run for 10 seasons. But in mid-January, all of that changed when it was announced that season 8 would be the last. This news immediately caused confusion about how the TV adaptation of Jamie and Claire’s story would end and exactly how many of Gabaldon’s books the final season would cover.

Book 9 — Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone — was released in late 2021, and Gabaldon is currently writing book 10. Will either one be part of season 8?

Sam Heughan may have just confirmed exactly how the show will end

As the situation stands now, Outlander producers have access to books 8 and 9 as source material. But, Gabaldon has admitted it’s unlikely that she will have book 10 finished and published before the final season airs. So, it’s unclear if she will give producers access to the final book for season 8.

Multiple fan theories have emerged about how they will go about the ending to avoid a Game of Thrones-style disaster. As the resident Outlander expert here at Cheat Sheet, I’m predicting that they will keep the one book/one season format and the TV show will end the story with book 8.

But then, I think a final movie (or two) covering books 9 and 10 will be made after Gabaldon publishes the last novel. If Heughan’s recent social media activity is any indication, this theory could be spot on.

When a fan recently asked, “So the TV production will end, and the story will continue with DG’s book 10 (or more) published at some later date?” Heughan responded with a praise hands emoji, seemingly confirming the theory.

Diana Gabaldon has told Sam Heughan how ‘Outlander’ will end

Gabaldon has known the end to Jamie and Claire’s story for more than two decades. She will not spoil the ending for fans, but she has let Heughan in on the secret.

“I know how it ends, Diana has told me, but we still have a long way to go before we get to that,” Heughan told The Times.

Gabaldon has said in the past that Jamie’s ghost — which hasn’t been seen since the pilot episode — will return at the end of the story in the novels. She promises plenty of tears, and she also says the story will end in the year 1800.

“The last book will have a happy ending, though I confidently expect it to leave the readers in floods of tears, anyway,” Gabaldon wrote on her website.

But with the announcement that season 8 will be the last, the chances of the TV series ending the same way as Gabaldon’s novel series are slim to none