The Droughtlander briefly ended last night for the Outlander fans who were lucky enough to attend the cast panel at New York Comic Con (NYCC).
The panel featured cast members Caitriona Balfe (Claire), Sam Heughan (Jaime), Maria Doyle Kennedy (Aunt Jocasta), Duncan Lacroix (Murtagh), and David Berry (Lord John Grey); executive producers Ronald D. Moore and Maril Davis; and Outlander book series author Diana Gabaldon.
While last year’s Outlander panel previewed the entire first episode of season four, season five was still too early in production for more than a preview compilation, which audiences saw at the beginning and end of the panel. Based on the clip, which is just longer than one minute, this season will focus on the impending Revolutionary War and whether or not the family (or at least Brianna and Roger) should go back to the — objectively safer — present time. Starz shared the clip online shortly after the panel, and you can check it out below.
The rest of the panel, moderated by Good Morning America‘s Ginger Zee, was packed with fun fan service conversations and games. Highlights included having all of the cast members read their lines in a New York accent (Balfe was the clear winner), a version of “who is most likely to …” using especially large vocabulary words from Gabaldon’s novels, and questions that the panelists could opt out of, but only if they took a shot of whiskey.
The panelists revealed very little about the upcoming season, except that Claire’s medical practice will play a larger role and that fans will finally meet Adso the cat. The whole thing ended with the full panel taking a shot and “cheers”-ing the upcoming season. As always, Balfe and Heughan’s chemistry and friendship shone through, especially in one wonderfully awkward moment when Heughan described an upcoming scene as, “We made love without making love, I think.”
Honestly, the whole thing was just one big reminder that we still have 133 days left until the new season (which debuts on Feb. 16), but that it’ll definitely be worth the wait.
Photo: Starz
