Starz is set to debut the prequel series to its much-loved Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling novels, which just concluded after an 11-year run on the premium network and streaming service.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood returns to the romances between the parents of Outlander’s key couple: Claire (Catriona Balfe) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). It turns out that Claire inherited her time-traveling ways from her mother, Julia Moriston (Hermione Corfield), unbeknownst to her.
Much like Claire, Julia is in a car crash in World War I Scotland and then opens her eyes to find herself in 1714. There she meets Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater), Jamie’s mother, and encourages her to pursue a relationship with Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), Jamie’s father, even though the MacKenzies and the Frasers have been in a blood feud for years. But Julia also has been torn from her paramour, Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine), and knows what it feels like to lose the one you love.
“If you don’t go to him, it will haunt you forever,” Julia tells Ellen in the trailer. “I know what it is to be parted from your true love, and I sense it in you.”
Both the opening sequence and the series trailer move seamlessly back and forth across time, revealing how the two couples are connected not just by their progeny but also through time and space.
The song that accompanies the main-title sequence is an original composition by Outlander composer Bear McCreary and sung by Julie Fowlis. Outlander famously used an adapted version of Scottish folk song, “The Skye Boat Song,” sung by McCreary’s wife, Raya Yarbrough, although a new version sung by the late Sinead O’Connor was used in season seven. For the new series, the production team wanted to go in a different direction, reports Variety.
Besides the song, the main titles use beautiful images of the Scottish Highlands interspersed with scenes from WWI as they outline the love stories of the couples.
Outlander: Blood of my Blood, which already has been renewed for season two, debuts Friday, August 8 on Starz as well as on the Starz app and on all Starz streaming and on-demand platforms. New episodes will be released each Friday.
