‘Outlander’ Season 3 Cast Is Growing [Spoilers]
The Outlander Season 3 cast is growing as showrunners prepare to bring back the sci-fi/historical drama/romance to Starz. With a rumored premiere date sometime in April, it coincides with the return of spring, and fans are eagerly awaiting both. Some of the new cast members are older versions of familiar characters, and some are new.
Season 3 of the Outlander series on Starz will cover the events in the third book in Gabaldon’s series — Voyager. It will pick up where Season 2 left off as Claire (Caitriona Balfe) returns to the 1700s after learning that Jamie (Sam Heughan) survived the Battle of Culloden. Twenty years have passed in their lives, however, so many things have changed since their heartbreaking goodbye — thus the new cast members.
One of Season 3’s new characters has stirred up some controversy among Outlander fans. Mr. Willoughby (whose real name in the book is Yi Tien Cho) is a Chinese character that it is believed will be played by Gary Young in Season 3. Hofmag reports that some fans find Willoughby, even in the book, “stereotypical and discriminatory.”
The Outlander wiki describes Willoughby like this.
“… a Chinese exile living in Edinburgh. Even more of a duck out of water than Claire, he can do acrobatics and has a sexual fetish about feet, which does not endear him to the local female population. He also does not hold his liquor well. Mr. Willoughby has some knowledge of healing using Chinese medicine such as Baoding balls and acupuncture.”
Outlander BTS states that while Gabaldon is aware of the objection of some to Mr. Willoughby, she doesn’t really understand it.
“She added she had only ever had a couple of letters of complaint in relation to the character, from people of Chinese descent who were angry that Mr. Willoughby was described as short in the book.
“‘I understand not all Chinese people are short,’ she went on, ‘but you cannot have a representative sample of all Chinese people in this book – he is one character and has to be one size or another. Given that both Jamie and Claire are abnormally tall for their time, they are almost bound to see them as short, and it is their viewpoint. So no cultural offence is intended.'”
Another new character that will appear in Season 3 of Outlander is Lord John Grey, who is also in the books. Entertainment Weekly reported that Australian actor David Berry has been cast for the role, and describes Grey as “the former British soldier-turned-Ardsmuir Prison governor who strikes up a dubious friendship with the incarcerated Jamie Fraser.” Their friendship can be described as “dubious” in part because Lord John Grey is homosexual and has romantic feelings for Jamie. Given that the two are friends in the 1700s, homosexuality is not something that Grey would be open about, so this should make for some interesting scenes when Outlander returns. The Outlander wiki describes their relationship in this way.
“Though they develop a mutual liking for one another through their monthly discussions of literature and chess matches, Grey’s feelings far surpass those of a friend, let alone a soldier’s for his prisoner.”
Two more actors have been added to the cast due to the simple fact that they have aged 20 years since Season 2 of Outlander. One is the lovable Fergus. French actor Cesar Domboy has been cast for the older version of the character.
The other new cast member who is playing an older version of an existing character is Lauren Lyle, who will play Marsali, Laoghaire’s oldest daughter, a strong-willed woman who is not afraid to go against her mother’s wishes in the book series.
Check out the adorable Q&A with Outlander stars Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan below.
[Featured Image by Starz]
