“I really think we were meant to do this show together”: Caitríona Balfe on Outlander season eight

Since 2014, Outlander has left fans enthralled by its time travel fantasies and the romance between iconic TV couple Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire Fraser (Caitríona Balfe). But the beloved series is coming to an end. Following a special screening in London, Balfe opened up about saying goodbye to Claire after 12 action-packed years.

“It is [sad] because obviously there was the first wave of saying goodbye to it…When we started gearing up for this press, it was just so lovely to have all of us together again, and it has been so special…I guess this is our goodbye with you guys,” Balfe reflected.

Considering that the series has been going for 12 years, and built up quite the cult following during that time, Balfe was asked whether she knew it would get so big. “I think that when something first happens, you get carried away in this wave of it…you don’t really know what’s going on and you sort of get carried by this whole thing,” she said. “But then that sort of dies down a little bit, and then you still see people show up…When I went to the Oscars for the first time, a lot of people kept coming up to me like, ‘Oh, we saw Outlander!’”

In recent years, the female cast of Outlander has been ever-expanding. Balfe praised author Diana Gabaldon for her multifaceted characterisations “[She is] unapologetic, so authentically herself. And when you meet her, she’s never afraid to say what she thinks, and I think she gives that to everybody in a different way.”

Balfe enthused that Gabaldon’s strength lies in covering the breadth of human experience. “All the characters in her worlds get to be brilliant,” she stated. “Get to be terrible. Get to be a lovely mixture of both. They get to be weak. They get to be strong, they get to be vulnerable. They get to be the heroes, you know, and it’s sort of like I think everyone has their moments in all of these kinds of different facets of humanity.”

For the final season, Balfe stepped behind the camera as director, a lifelong ambition of hers. “It had been a dream of mine before I even went to drama school,” she revealed. “I was, you know, in our tiny theatre, directing, like little tiny plays, and it was something I always wanted. But I’d taken such a detour from acting, and by the time I came back, I was like 30, and you’re just trying to get a job, and you feel like you have to prove yourself so much as an actor.”

Having worked with Sam Heughan for over a decade, Balfe recalled first bonding with her onscreen husband during a walk through Hyde Park. “I love him to bits…And I think we made a commitment to each other on that walk to have each other’s backs and, you know, we both took it very seriously, and I’m so…grateful because I adore him and I am just so in awe of the man that he’s become…I really value that friendship, and I’m so proud that we’ve managed to retain that over the years.”

Regarding the pair’s onscreen romance, beloved by fans, she said, “I really think we were meant to do this show together…it’s lovely to be able to say that.”

As the series ends, Balfe reflected on her decades-plus journey: “It’s quite incredible that [Gabaldon] came up with this world, and she came up with this premise…I look back over the years at all of the people who have passed through and all of the brilliant characters that we’ve had on the show – it’s quite amazing.”

Antonia Georgiou

Outlander season eight is released on MGM+ on Prime Video on 7^th March 2026. Read our review here.

Watch the trailer for Outlander season eight here: