Outlander's Jamie Fraser actor Sam Heughan spills the beans on season 7

Scottish actor promises Outlander fans that another action-packed season is in the works

Outlander’s Sam Heughan has told fans what to expect when the hit time-travel series returns for its seventh season – and the Scottish star promises it’s going to be “huge”.

Speaking exclusively to our sister paper The Scotman, the Jamie Fraser actor revealed that another action-packed season is in the works.

The 42-year-star told The Scotsman’s Janet Christie: “It’s Outlander XL, 16 episodes. We only shot eight last season because of Covid and my wonderful co-star Caitriona was pregnant, so this one is a double.

Outlander’s Sam Heughan has told fans what to expect when the hit time-travel series returns for its seventh season.

“It’s huge. Claire is in prison, Jamie is seeking to rescue her and we’re dealing with a war of independence in America. It really is action packed and it’s going really well.”

Heughan was then asked if, as the only person in the cast with whom Outlander author Diana Gabaldon has shared the ending of the story, he’s worried about letting it slip?

Laughing, he replied: “I do sometimes think oh god, am I going to say something?”

But so far he’s been tight-lipped.

He added: “Diana’s been great and very supportive and always there guiding me as well. I talk about it in the book, show some of the conversations we have and she’s even talked to me – because she’s writing the last book now – about what do I think.

“I love that she’s done that. She’s a great friend now and that’s all I could look for.”

Earlier this week, the Evening News reported that in his just-published memoir, Waypoints, Heughan discusses what it was like moving to Edinburgh as a teenager.

Heughan moved from his native Dumfries and Galloway to the Scottish capital at the age of 12 – and he says it was like a “like a whole new world for him”.

In a chapter titled ‘The Wake-Up Call’, Heughan reveals that his family moved to Edinburgh so his mother could enrol at Edinburgh College of Art.

He writes: “After years of living in a quiet community, my mother, my brother and I packed our belongings for what felt like a whole new world.

“Swapping the stable and the castle ruins for a suburban street in Edinburgh, we set about settling in for this new chapter in our lives.

“It was a big change, but also hugely exciting for two young lads like Cirdan and me. I had just finished at my little primary school, so I started high school at the same time as all my new classmates.

“It was a little overwhelming to begin with, but since I could now see without the dreaded glasses, I soon started to make friends and feel comfortable in a crowd.”

The 12-year-old Heughan attended James Gillespie's High School, which he recalls as having “very strong on rules and discipline”.

He also remembers a run-in with the school’s head teacher, after an incident involving a carton of milk.

Heughan writes: “On one occasion, I came very close to getting into trouble from the top.

“At the time, I had just been made a school prefect... The incident began with a milk carton. I had been tasked with helping to dish them out at break time to pupils who were part of a milk-in-schools scheme.

“On finding one left over, I decided to join the scheme for one break only... A moment later, like a gunslinger in some two-bit town, the headmistress stepped out.

“My eyes went wide with horror... I seized an escape route in the form of the door to the toilet block... I took one look at the open window and lobbed it out.”

Musing that it was the perhaps first time he ever got into character, Heughan goes on to describe raiding a bin once his headmistress questioned him about the missing milk carton – and how he bluffed her after luckily finding one at the bottom.

He writes: “The headmistress considered the carton in my hand... Once again she seemed to be searching my expression for cracks. The face-off only lasted for a couple of seconds, but it felt like a lifetime.

“It was perhaps the first occasion that I'd got into character, and it wouldn't be the last. Ultimately it showed me what was possible if I delivered it with conviction.”