As part of the “World Outlander Day” celebration, Starz has set the premiere for the second half of Outlander Season 7 for Friday, November 22. New episodes will drop weekly on Fridays at midnight ET on the Starz app, Starz streaming and on-demand. On linear, new episodes will debut at 8 PM ET/PT on Starz in the U.S.

Outlander is also currently in production on a 10-episode eighth and final season. Newly joined cast includes Kieran Bew (House of the Dragon, Warrior), who will be playing “Captain Charles Cunningham,” a retired British soldier; Frances Tomelty (Woman in the Wall, Catastrophe), who will play his mother, “Elspeth Cunningham”; and Carla Woodcock (Such Brave Girls, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder), who joins in the role of “Amaranthus Grey,” a new member of the Grey family.

In Season 7 Part 2, Claire (Caitríona Balfe), Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Young Ian (John Bell) are leaving the colonies and arriving in their beloved homeland: Scotland. The perils of the Revolutionary War force them to choose between standing by those they love and fighting for the land they have made their new home. Meanwhile, Roger (Richard Rankin) and Brianna (Sophie Skelton) face new enemies across time and must battle the forces that threaten to pull their family apart. As loyalties change and painful secrets come to light, Jamie and Claire’s marriage is tested like never before. With their love binding them over oceans and centuries, can the MacKenzies and Frasers find their way back to each other?

Alongside Balfe, Heughan, Skelton, Rankin and Bell, Outlander also stars David Berry as “Lord John Grey,” Charles Vandervaart as “William Ransom,” Izzy Meikle-Small as “Rachel Hunter” and Joey Phillips as “Denzell Hunter.”

Matthew B. Roberts, Ronald D. Moore, Maril Davis, Toni Graphia, Luke Schelhaas, Andy Harries, Jim Kohlberg, Caitríona Balfe, and Sam Heughan serve as executive producers on “Outlander,” which is produced by Tall Ship Productions, Left Bank Pictures and Story Mining & Supply Company, in association with Sony Pictures Television.

The Outlander television series is inspired by Diana Gabaldon’s international best-selling books, which have sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide. [Source]

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “The Happiest Place on Earth,” Season 7, Episode 2 of “Outlander,” now streaming on Starz.

While an epic explosion at Frasier’s Ridge would seem like the most shocking event thus far this season on “Outlander,” the Starz series managed to also pack in a shocking reveal, a bittersweet birth and the series’ most heartbreaking goodbye yet.

Moments into “The Happiest Place on Earth,” the mystery of who actually killed Malva (Jessica Reynolds) is finally solved. Despite Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones) having taken the blame for his daughter’s murder to save Claire (Caitriona Balfe) from the noose, it was actually his son Allan (Alexander Vlahos) who did it. Claire tries to stop Allan, overcome with grief, from taking his own life but Ian (John Bell) appears and shoots him with an arrow — stating that Allan’s actions killed an unborn child and for that, he cannot live.

On a somewhat happier note, Frasier’s Ridge welcomes its newest resident, Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger’s (Richard Rankin) daughter Amanda. But it isn’t long before Claire notices the child has a potentially fatal heart issue. With this discovery comes the realization that Bri, Roger and their children must travel back to the future where modern medicine can save Amanda — and also potentially never see Claire and Jamie again.

As the MacKenzie family time-travel to the 1980s, Claire and Jamie (Sam Heughan) try to settle into their new normal. It isn’t long before trouble strikes. Fellow time traveler Wendigo Donner breaks into Claire’s surgery room to steal gemstones so he can go back home. As he and his crew rabidly search for more, they knock ether all over the floor. With an unfortunate strike of the match, Claire and Jamie’s life at Frasier’s Ridge goes up in flames.

Variety spoke with Balfe, Heughan, Skelton and Rankin about their families possibly parting ways forever, and what fans can expect for both couples this season.

This week’s episode, “The Happiest Place On Earth,” features a devastating parting of ways. These two families, the Frasiers and the MacKenzies, are going to be broken apart by hundreds of years, and just after Brianna has given birth to her daughter, Amanda. How does this rank in terms of sad goodbyes on the series, which are, unfortunately, a common occurrence?

CAITRIONA BALFE: I think that the joy and the absolute thrill of Brianna having a new kid, and everyone being able to be present there for that new life coming into the family — that was such a high. And then for the fear and the worry to come in when they realize that there’s actually something wrong with Mandy, and the implications of that and what that means. There really was only one solution, and that was for them to go back to save her. But it’s a death. It’s like they know that this is the final goodbye, or they think it’s the final goodbye.
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