Following the rather exciting news that a new Outlander spinoff is in the works, Starz has revealed what the future holds for the original series - and fans will be relieved to hear that it's good news.
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The announcement that the bosses behind the hugely successful time travel drama were expanding the Outlander universe with a prequel series titled Blood of My Blood last week sent fans into a tailspin, with many concerned that it could spell the end for the main series.
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But now, setting the record straight on how the newly announced series will affect Outlander's future, Starz's President of Original Programming Kathryn Busby has said: "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]."
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She then pointed to the fact that another one of the network's most successful shows, the crime drama Power, has spawned multiple spinoffs since it launched back in 2016. "What we've proven with the Power franchise is that we can have different lanes of storytelling around the same base.
The prequel series will focus on the Fraser family's life in the Highlands
"We believe that we can do that with Outlander as well," she told Deadline. "They are not mutually exclusive at all."
However, she declined to comment on the status of contract negotiations beyond season seven for stars Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe, which could suggest that they are still up in the air.
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Speculation that the show could end with its next season has been rife following the comments of some of the cast members, as well as the fact that both lead stars have caught the eye of casting directors, landing roles in lots of new projects in recent years.
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While Caitríona came close to winning a BAFTA for her role in Kenneth Branagh's critically acclaimed Belfast, Sam recently starred in Channel 4 drama Suspect and has a number of other projects in the pipeline.
Last year, Caitríona told Deadline that ending the show with season seven could make sense as "it would be ten years" since it began. She continued: "We all feel like we're so lucky that we've gone this far. Who knows what happens after that, but how lucky we've been, right?"
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