The Starz channel, which has been successfully airing Outlander since 2014, has made official a prequel focusing on Ellen MacKenzie and Brian Fraser, the parents of Jamie (Sam Heughan).
Titled Outlander: Blood of My Blood, the series is currently in development under the direction of Matthew B. Roberts. He will act as showrunner, executive producer and writer for this new project. Also attached to this project are Ronald D. Moore, Maril Davis and Diana Gabaldon, the author of the Outlander books.
Following the announcement of this new project, Diana Gabaldon said on Facebook that she had not been approached by the network and didn’t know what the role of consulting producer that was assigned to her was. After the release, Kathryn Busby, head of original content at Starz, said, “We’re still working the details out but Diana Gabaldon will definitely be involved. She is a fantastic writer and from season to season, she’s been a pleasure to work with. We are going to keep working with her.”
This announcement made Outlander fans fear that the original series would not go beyond its 7th season, currently in production. Especially since the contracts of the main actors, including Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Richard Rankin, Sophie Skelton and John Bell, are coming to an end at the end of season 7. Kathryn Busby reassured fans about this to Deadline: “Outlander is such a very important show for us that we would love to have as much Outlander as we possibly can have. [The prequel will] absolutely not [take away Starz’s commitment to the original series]. What we’ve proven with the Power franchise is that we can have different lanes of storytelling around the same base. We believe that we can do that with Outlander as well. They are not mutually exclusive at all.”
Diana Gabaldon 
Maril Davis 
Ronald D. Moore 
Outlander 
