Personally I get excited when they announce new Outlander casting. Not only because I know that it’s another day closer to having Jamie and Claire back on my TV – but also because I am looking at who I will inevitably drool over.
Who has been added? New Zealand actor Gary Young will play Mr. Willoughby, and Charlie Hiett will portray British Captain Thomas Leonard in the upcoming third season.
Leonard is described as “the inexperienced, by-the-book de facto captain of the Artemis. Promoted quickly due to the untimely deaths of his commanding officers, Leonard takes his job very seriously, though it weighs heavily on his young shoulders. A third lieutenant, he never thought he would be the captain of a man-of-war ship. Above all, he wants to do what is right by the British Navy — whether or not it is right by his own personal morals.”
Mr. Willoughby, “A Chinese man with a deep knowledge of Eastern medicine, Mr. Willoughby is a talented poet in exile, with an even deeper love of women. Willoughby, a confidante of Jamie Fraser, speaks English well, but hides it when it suits him. He is even more of an outsider than Claire in 18th century Scotland.”
The third season picks up “right after Claire (Caitriona Balfe) travels through the stones to return to her life in 1948. Now pregnant, she struggles with the fallout of her sudden reappearance and its effect on her marriage to her first husband, Frank (Tobias Menzies). Meanwhile, in the 18th century, Jamie suffers from the aftermath of his doomed last stand at the historic battle of Culloden, as well as the loss of Claire. As the years pass, Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire attempt to make a life apart from one another, each haunted by the memory of their lost love. The budding possibility that Claire can return to Jamie in the past breathes new hope into Claire’s heart… as well as new doubt. Separated by continents and centuries, Claire and Jamie must find their way back to each other. As always, adversity, mystery, and adventure await them on the path to reunion. And the question remains: when they find each other, will they be the same people who parted at the standing stones, all those years ago?”
Filming began for the 13-episode third season in August 2016 in Scotland and the production will move to South Africa in March 2017.
