‘Outlander’ Season 4: Key Role Cast, Story Synopsis
Warning: This article contains Outlander Season 3 and Season 4 spoilers.
Outlander Season 3 won’t air until September, but the makers of the hit time-traveling series have already begun prepping for Season 4 by casting a key role: Rollo the dog.
Readers of Drums of Autumn — the fourth novel of Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling Outlander series, and the basis for Season 4 — know that Rollo is a wolf hybrid that becomes an integral part of the Fraser clan after he is adopted by Young Ian Murray. The puppies have been cast early so they can begin training for their extensive role in the series.
Entertainment Weekly obtained a picture of the gorgeous Northern Inuit pups that will play Rollo. According to a Starz spokesperson, the dog will have a “penchant for getting into trouble, often sticking his large, wet nose into places it doesn’t belong” and “will play a key part in the adventure that lies ahead.”
Meet the puppies who will play Rollo on #Outlander: https://t.co/VbGjgwNrt4 ? pic.twitter.com/o5zkIt19wc
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) May 7, 2017
The news outlet also chatted with Diana Gabaldon about what to expect from puppies in Outlander Season 4.
“They look cute, but tough. They should be just right to play Rollo when the time comes. They’d need to growl and look menacing on command, I think, and carry back prey of one kind or another to their master. I assume they wouldn’t let them catch things on camera … especially fish, of course.”
The author goes on to explain how Young Ian, Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) nephew, meets up with the beloved family pet.
“Rollo and Young Ian met on the docks in North Carolina, when Young Ian won the dog in a card game, and a life-long bond was formed between them, meaning that Rollo became a member of the ever-growing Fraser family,” Gabaldon explains.
A synopsis of Drums of Autumn — and all the Outlander novels — is available on Gabaldon’s website. Look away now if you don’t want to be spoiled.
“Here Claire and Jamie, with Jamie’s nephew Young Ian, seek to find a place for themselves in the colony of North Carolina, treading a dangerous line between Governor Tryon’s patronage and Claire’s knowledge of the brewing revolution in America, between the help of Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta, last of his MacKenzie kin (‘MacKenzies are charming as larks in the field–but sly as foxes with it.’) and the unwanted obligations of her slave-run plantation. As they find mountain land and begin to build their first cabin, their newfound life is bittersweet, with the thought Brianna–the daughter Claire has left behind, the daughter Jamie will never see–always near.”
As the Inquisitr previously reported, Outlander Season 3 is currently filming in Cape Town, South Africa, using the sets of fellow Starz series Black Sails. Cape Town is filling in for Jamaica, where Jamie and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) will head following their long-awaited reunion. Season 3 will likely end where Voyager, the third book in the Outlander series, ends — with the couple’s ship being blown off course and heading toward the American colonies. This will set up the North Carolina storyline in Season 4.
Caitriona Balfe recently previewed Outlander Season 3, including the Jamaica storyline, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“I think this season is going to be really interesting and it’s going to be so new again. I mean, I think we do that every season; we sort of flip it on its head. Last season, we went to Paris and it was something totally different. This season, we start off with a little bit of a separate storyline, which is really fun for us. We’re hoping the fans will be as happy.”
“We’ve got the great reunion happening and then we go to South Africa — well, in the story it’s Jamaica — but there’s old ships involved and it’s just a constantly evolving, exciting adventure.”
What do you think of the puppies that have been cast as Rollo? Are you already looking forward to Outlander Season 4?
Outlander Season 3 returns to Starz in September.
[Featured Image by Starz]
