While at NYCC 2024, I had the chance to speak with Caitríona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Sophie Skelton, Richard Rankin, John Bell, executive producer Maril Davis, and author Diana Gabaldon about Outlander. The finale of Season 7, Part 2 will be available January 17 at midnight on the STARZ app, all STARZ streaming and on-demand platforms, and air at 8 PM ET/PT.

Coming off the first half of Outlander Season 7, we find Claire, Jamie and Young Ian leaving the colonies and arriving in their beloved homeland: Scotland. The perils of the Revolutionary War force them to choose between standing by those they love and fighting for the land they have made their new home. Meanwhile, Roger and Brianna face new enemies across time, and must battle the forces that threaten to pull their family apart. As loyalties change and painful secrets come to light, Jamie and Claire’s marriage is tested like never before. With their love binding them over oceans and centuries, can the MacKenzies and Frasers find their way back to each other?

During roundtable interviews, I asked each of them to reflect on their most meaningful fan interactions. Keep reading to find out their responses.

“It’s always quite humbling to hear how it’s helped support people through some pretty hard and shitty times,” Rankin (Roger MacKenzie) told me. “That’s what kind of entertainment media [is], it’s escapism, right? But to hear people tell [us] how they’re having particularly hard times with grief, with illness, or whatever, and that they’ve got into this and they’ve managed to just escape through that, it’s always really kind of humbling, and nice to hear, I think.”

Heughan (Jamie Fraser), who is also an executive producer, added, “That’s maybe why Outlander has been so successful, perhaps, is that there is a comfort, because you can always kind of rely on this relationship or these relationships and these characters and you’re like, you can go back into that world and escape this world, which is fucking madness sometimes, and we can go there and we’re in a safe place because we know whatever happens there, ultimately, hopefully, at the center of it, they’re going to love each other and be with each other.”

“One of the things that I value the most, you know, I don’t do very many conventions, but when I do, I tend to get a lot of letters. It’s very hard, people bring gifts and they’re so generous and sweet, and I’m not coming with two empty suitcases, so it’s so hard to bring everything or anything [home] but the thing I always keep is the letters. I have a massive box of all fans’ letters at home and I try to read all of them,” Balfe (Claire Fraser) explained. “I don’t feel responsible because I’m a part of the show and a part of this thing that’s been created. It’s not ours, it’s everybody’s and I’ve watched things that have given me comfort or made me feel stuff and understood sort of where I’m at in my life a little bit better, and the fact that I get to be part of something that does that for other people too is amazing. So I’m not sure that there’s one particular, but the letters have always, you know, they blow me away, and I feel so humbled and also so privileged to be able to be a part of that. It means a lot because they put a lot into it and I understand.”

Additionally, the actress/EP opened up to me about conversations she’d had regarding Claire’s wardrobe, saying, “I think because I came from fashion, and I used to do a lot of fit modeling, so I understand when tailors, seamstresses, and stuff are talking about seams and what maybe needs to be done, and if something feels, you know, I love all of that stuff. I love the craftsmanship and we have an atelier at our studio. It’s like couture, especially my costumes, I’m like, ‘They’re incredible.’ But from very early on, Terry and I had a lot of discussions about sort of who Claire was and it was that marrying of a modern woman with these things, so like the pockets, [I] fought so hard for those pockets, and I always have a pocket every time, because I just feel like Claire’s a practical woman, and even when Terry left and Trisha Biggar came in, we were having conversations, and Trisha, I think, always came from more of a aesthetic, and I was like, ‘No, she has to be practical. I don’t care if it doesn’t look as flattering, it has to be practical.’ Then Nadine Powell, who’s now our costume designer for this final season, was amazing, and again, I feel like she and I had such an incredible collaboration with Claire’s stuff, what she needs, and what she would wear.

Bell (Young Ian) shared, “Big shout out to the fans, we could not be here without them. I think this is the culmination of this phenomenon here at New York Comic Con. So, to say I’m excited is a bit of an understatement. I’m also a little nervous because I don’t know quite how much love there’s going to be but it can be overwhelming, you know? But it gives me life, it really does. It gives me good, zesty life. So, yeah, I’m buzzing, as we say in Scotland.”

“Yeah, we actually came in through the back, so we haven’t even seen any of what the fans are wearing yet, we don’t know how many fans are going to be here, so I just have a feeling we’re going to turn the corner and it’s going to be like, push. So, that’s going to be your big drop into the middle of New York Comic Con welcome,” Skelton (Brianna MacKenzie) expressed. “I think the most meaningful ones are actually when I see — because I had a tricky relationship with my mom growing up — when you actually see mothers and daughters coming to conventions together and they’re like, ‘Claire and Brianna’s relationship really helped us be closer and heal us,’ and I’m just like, that’s beautiful. So, that means a lot to me. We’re kind of locked away in Scotland and you don’t really see, it’s really easy to kind of forget or to not see how much effect this show does have on people’s lives. And so, when we come to stuff like this, like JB said, the fans, it’s really everything, and it’s so emotional to see that what we’re doing actually matters, and that it can change how people view the world and people’s lives.”

Fun fact: it was both Skelton and Bell’s first time at NYCC.

“I don’t know if there’s one specific memory that stands out. It’s more that, I think, we’ve just been so embraced by the fans and even in the first time we had a fan event that was before we’d shown anything, so many people showed up,” Davis recalled. “We had like 2,000 fans at this LA event and I thought, ‘Oh my God, if they’re going to show up before they’ve ever seen anything, imagine once we’re out,’ and they’ve stuck with us for 10+ years. We always say you can’t feed enough info to them and I work on other shows, For All Mankind, and we don’t have the same thing over there. I think you don’t appreciate that until you realize that that’s not usual. I think they love Diana, they love these books, they love these characters, and I love the fact that they found each other in this community and friendships have been made. Certainly, there’s negatives sometimes, but I would say 97% is positive and it feels good.”

Gabaldon then commented, “Oh yeah, you like people to appreciate what you’re doing, and when you do something that’s essentially creating things out of thin air, to have someone appreciate that is [amazing].”

The eighth and final season of Outlander has already wrapped filming.