‘Outlander’ prequel star and creators tease ties to season 7 cliffhanger

Sing me a song…

It turns out Fanny’s connection to Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) on Outlander might be even more complicated than we thought. On the season 7 finale of the Starz series, Claire was stunned to discover Fanny singing “I Do Like to Be By the Seaside,” a song from the 20th century.

Fanny told Claire that she learned the song from her mother, which leads Claire to wonder if somehow her and Jamie’s stillborn daughter, Faith, survived. That in itself is crazy enough but now with the premiere of prequel series, Outlander: Blood of my Blood, things are getting even more complicated.

When the cast of Blood of my Blood stopped by our Comic-Con studio, they addressed some fan theories, including one user’s suggestion that Claire’s mother Julia (Hermione Corfield) might have sung the tune during her own sojourn in the past and that’s how it was passed down to Fanny.

Sam Retford, who plays the younger version of Dougal MacKenzie in the series, read the theory aloud, before commenting, “I’ve heard this theory as well. Because someone hums it.”

Corfield replied, “Oh yes, I do. I’m trying to think when I sing it to be honest. I sing ‘Take Me Back to Blighty,’ which I sing all the time when I’m in Glasgow anyway.”

When we caught up with Corfield later, we asked her to elaborate on a potential connection. “There is meant to be a link,” she says. “I don’t exactly know what that link is, but there is meant to be some kind of thread there.”

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Showrunner and prequel creator Matthew B. Roberts wasn’t much more forthcoming when asked about the potential connection, laughing nervously in response. “Maybe,” he says. “I don’t want to get in too much about season 8, but things might be tied up.”

Adds executive producer Maril Davis, “It’s nice to know where that song came from.”

Outlander: Blood of my Blood premieres Friday at 8 p.m.ET/PT, on Starz.