| Lauren Piester 10. April 2015 – 14:37
Attention, Outlander book fans: this post is just for you.
That’s right, if you haven’t read Diana Gabaldon‘s epic novels, we’d like to kindly ask you to take a nice hike, because thar be spoilers ahead!
Seriously, we’re not kidding. If you don’t want to know about a major aspect of Outlander season two, head over here instead for some safer scoop on Starz’s hit drama.
There’s one major question that Outlander fans seem to be consistently concerned with: Who will play Jamie and Claire’s kids?
We understand your curiosity because we share it, to be quite honest. The idea of children born and/or raised by the two pillars of perfection that are Jamie and Claire kind of sets our fangirl tendencies into overdrive
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As you probably already know, the second book, “Dragonfly in Amber,” introduces us to two members of the Fraser clan.
One is the adopted Fergus, who’s about 10 when we meet him in France in 1744. He’s described as having black hair, pale skin, and a beaked nose.
We also meet the 20 year-old Brianna, who is Jamie and Claire’s biological daughter. She is described as looking a bit like Jamie—very tall, long red hair, high cheek bones, and slanted blue eyes.
With season two starting production any day now, it’s possible that at least one of these two youngsters has been cast, but at least when we caught up with executive producer Ronald D. Moore at PaleyFest, they were still in the casting process.
MORE: The Outlander cast spills on the difficult road ahead
“We have not cast them yet,” Moore told us. “It’s a long chain that gets you to finding the actors, as we went through with Cait [Balfe] and Sam [Heughan]. Sometimes you find them right away, sometimes you have to keep looking.”
As for what Moore and the casting director are looking for when they’re casting, he couldn’t give us a list of requirements.
“There’s no one particular thing that you’re looking for in any of these roles, except that when they get on camera, they kind of become that character and they lose themselves in the role,” he told us. “It’s just one of those things that you just know it when you see it. When you see the tape, you just sort of sit up and go, ‘Oh my god!'”
“It makes a big difference,” he continued. “It’s an ineffable quality that the right actor with the right role can sort of bring to the show.”
That was how Heughan and Balfe were both cast, though Balfe arrived on the scene much later than Heughan.
“You know the story we always told in the first season was Cait’s scene where she’s on the horse and he falls off, and her line is, “Help, stop, he’s going over,” Moore said. “We heard that line so many times we wanted to cut it from the show, but when Cait did it, we all suddenly just were engaged in that scene again. We all just went, “Oh my god, there she is. That’s Claire.”
CLICK: Get more Outlander scoop with this week’s spoiler chat!
While Moore may not have specific requirements, we do, and we know you do, too.
When you’re talking about tall red heads, the 5’11” Karen Gillan first comes to mind. Funnily enough, the role would require the Scot to don an American accent, since Brianna is raised in Boston. She’s probably a little too well known, but we will watch and love pretty much anything Gillan is in, so it doesn’t matter to us. (RIP Selfie!)
We also immediately thought of Rose Leslie, who played Ygritte (RIP again!) on Game of Thrones. She’s not especially tall at 5’6″, but she does bear somewhat of a resemblance to Sam Heughan and she’s definitely got the spunk. Plus, we miss Ygritte!
Lily Cole is another option. The English actress and model is 5’10” and probably best known in the U.S. for appearing in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. She might have the relative anonymity and the cheekbones to take on the part, as well as the acting chops to pull it off.
We also love Molly Quinn. While she’s a little short at 5’4″ (especially next to gentle giants Balfe and Heughan), we’ve always loved her on Castle and would love to see her take on a character who’s a little more dramatic but equally as independent.
CLICK: Play our Outlander spoiler game!
As for Fergus, only one ten year-old actor came to mind: the kid who played young Stefan on The Vampire Diaries. We love Paul Wesley, but we would happily accept many more flashback scenes if it means we get to see more of the adorable Sawyer Bell.
We’re also fans of the youngster who played young Baelfire on Once Upon a Time, though Dylan Schmid is now about 16 and might be a little too old.
In any case, Moore and the Outlander casting team have already hit so many home runs in the actor department that we have no doubt they’ll continue that winning streak. But we can always dream.
Who are your picks for the Fraser kids? And who do you think should play Roger Wakefield, Brianna’s hopefully hunky love interest? Let us know in the comments!
Outlander airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Starz.
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