Millions of Aussie women want one thing - and the cast of Outlander: Blood of My Blood just promised to deliver

Exclusive: It’s bad news for millions of Outlander: Blood Of My Blood fans who have been holding out hope for a ‘happily ever after’ in season two, as the cast reveal things are only about to get worse for their favourite characters.

But don’t be disheartened; every setback offers a new opportunity for leading men Brian Fraser and Henry Beauchamp to yearn after their ladies, and that’s precisely what keeps millions of Australian women hooked on the show.

“I think that’s Outlander’s thing,” Jamie Roy, who plays Highland heartthrob Brian, told nine.com.au sequestered away in a room at The Langham Hotel in Sydney.

“Seeing the obstacles which can come between relationships, and seeing how people can overcome that.”

It certainly worked for the original Outlander, which spanned eight seasons of Jamie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp fighting to be together and inspired the prequel about their respective parents’ love stories.

Romance has long been one of the most lucrative and popular written fiction genres, and love stories have dominated film and TV recently, from romps like Off Campus, to period pieces like Bridgerton and Wuthering Heights.

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Audiences – especially female audiences – crave fictional men who yearn for the women they love, and no one does yearning quite like the men of Outlander.

Even so, Harriet Slater, who plays Brian’s love Ellen MacKenzie, was aghast when she flipped open the script for season two to see they’d been torn apart by a brewing Jacobite uprising.

“It’s frustrating, for sure,” Slater told nine.com.au, her crisp English accent totally unlike the Scottish burr she perfected on-screen.

“You spent the whole of season one wanting these characters to get together and be free to love each other, and they finally have that, and bam – war.”

In hindsight, she probably should have seen this coming; and watching Ellen and Brian yearn for each other through another season will only make fans root for them even more.

“Maybe it’s a bit deep, but [I hope] that people can watch this and think, ‘If these couples can get through all that shit, we can make it through whatever troubles we’re having’,” Roy said – and god, can he sell it.

One room over, in an identical suite, Hermione Corfield and Jeremy Irvine tell nine.com.au they saw the writing on the wall for their characters Henry and Julia Beauchamp.

After falling through time from the 1920s to 18th Century Scotland, the married couple were separated and only reunited in the final episode, where their story ended on a major cliffhanger.

Irvine suspects he may have upset one of the show’s writers, based on what they put Henry and Julia through in season two.

“People love to see them separated and struggling and trying to get back to each other,” he said, confirming they’ll be torn apart again.

Corfield added, “We do often say to each other, ‘Give us a break, please.’”

It’s a sentiment echoed by many Australians trying find love in 2026, which may be why shows like Outlander: Blood Of My Blood are so attractive right now.

In the age of dating apps and swiping right, the on-screen yearning between Brian and Ellen or Henry and Julia every time their eyes meet or fingers brush feels so much more romantic and real than anything the real world can offer.

These characters have a fantastical, fairy-tale kind of love that’s so rare these days even the cast couldn’t swallow it at first.

When Irvine signed on and learned that Julia and Henry fell in love through letters without ever actually meeting face-to-face, he didn’t think fans would be on board.

“I questioned the writer about it. I was like, ‘I don’t know if people are going to believe this,’” he said.

Slater and Roy felt similarly about Ellen and Brian declaring their love after a single chance meeting in a chicken coop.

Surprisingly, it was two real-world love stories that convinced them all.

Corfield had known a real-life couple who met once during World War II, reconnected after the war ended, and spent their whole lives together, and director Jamie Payne revealed he knew he’d marry his wife the moment they met.

Though the love stories in Outlander: Blood Of My Blood may seem far-fetched, they’re rooted in reality – and maybe that’s the magic that makes them so special.

“It’s not a million miles away from what could potentially, and does sometimes happen in life,” Slater said.

“But it is also a heightened, idealised version of love, akin to a fairy tale.”

That fairy tale romance is what drew fans to the original series and has kept them hooked on the prequel, even as some audiences grow tired of everything being a sequel, reboot or remake.

Roy, Slater, Irvine and Corfield were honoured to inherit such a devoted fanbase when they signed on for Outlander: Blood Of My Blood, even if it came with added pressure to live up to fan expectations.

All four felt grateful, knowing millions of strangers wanted them to succeed – and keep succeeding with season two.

“They want it to be good, so they’re going into it with an open mind,” Roy said.

“It’s like the Game of Thrones prequel. No one’s watching that like, ‘I hope this is terrible’. I like to think people think the same of our show.”

Especially given how hard the entire cast and crew worked on making season two bigger and better than the first.

Slater learned archery and perfected her Scottish accent for the new season, Roy got even more involved in action scenes and stunt work, and Irvine got to dig into his favourite part of playing Henry, though fans may not enjoy seeing it.

Without giving too much away, Irvine confessed his character’s arc is particularly painful in season two.

“The fact that [Henry’s] got this sort of fractured, broken mind is one of the things that drew me to playing him in the first place,” he said.

“It just gives you more things as an actor to play around with. It’s not as interesting just to play someone who’s flawless.”

Meanwhile, Corfield had to act opposite some of the most unpredictable and unprofessional co-stars imaginable: babies.

“We had one baby that was just going to the loo the whole way through every single take, farting, and then immediately he had to be removed,” she laughed of the infant actors who stood in for her on-screen son.

Turns out filming a love story for the ages isn’t all glitz and glamour after all, no matter how good the cast of Outlander: Blood Of My Blood makes it look.

The new season of Outlander: Blood of my Blood is only on Stan.