Is Outlander: Blood Of My Blood Based On A Book?

Nearly 40 years ago, Diana Gabaldon was inspired by an episode of Doctor Who featuring a young man in a kilt. “I said, Well, that’s kind of fetching. And I found myself still thinking about this the next day... in church,” she’d later recall to Visit Scotland.

The research professor said she used the idea as “practice” for writing a book — a little creative exercise that would lead to the global phenomenon that is Outlander, spanning a series of best-selling books and a smash-hit TV adaptation to match.

Now, with Starz’s new prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Gabaldon’s world travels even further back in time — specifically, to the love stories between Jamie and Claire’s respective parents (which, you’ll find, also include their share of century-hopping). But is Blood of My Blood based on a book like its predecessors? Here’s what to know.

Yes, An Outlander Prequel Book Is On The Way

If you’ve been following Gabaldon for a while, you know that she’s long been keen to write an Outlander prequel. As the author told Town & Country in 2022, a story focused on Jamie’s parents, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie, was “actively talking” to her.

“I’ve been carrying that one around in my head for quite a while, so I know quite a bit about it,” she continued. “And I’ve just started serious work on it, you might say. So I have actual scenes, things like that.”

While fans can read an excerpt from the yet-to-be-titled prequel, the book itself doesn’t have a release date. But that hasn’t stopped the development of the TV series, which also folds in Claire’s parents, Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp. “For what it’s worth, I have material for three — relatively short, as compared to the main Outlander novels — prequel books concerning Jamie’s parents,” Gabaldon, who serves as consulting producer on the new show, recently told TV Insider. “Blood of My Blood is based on the synopsis of the first of those books.”

A Key Departure

While Blood of My Blood is rooted in Gabaldon’s work, the Starz series makes at least one big departure by showing Claire’s parents time-traveling to 18th-century Scotland — whereas in the original Outlander timeline, they’re said to have died in a car accident.

As showrunner Matthew B. Roberts recently shared at San Diego Comic-Con (via the Daily Record), the twist had Gabaldon’s blessing. “We wouldn’t be sitting here if she thought otherwise,” he said. “She said to me it was a good idea. She didn’t want to explore it herself, but at least she said, ‘Go for it.’ I thanked her and I went for it.”