12 Years On, the Final Season of a Beloved Returning Fantasy Show Starts Today

We’ve finally entered the part of the year where streamers are gearing up for their big genre shows to finally return. One Piece will finally be back for Season 2 on Netflix next week, marking a fresh adventure on the high seas for the live-action manga adaptation. Prime Video will debut the fifth and final season of The Boys in April, bringing their massive superhero series to a close (ahead of new spinoffs that is), and Paramount+ will deliver the next chapter of Yellowstone with The Madison at the end of the month. It’s an exciting time for egnre fans.

Fantasy fans may have actually won, though, as today brings the beginning of the end of a favorite. Today marks the premiere of Season 8 of Outlander, which is now finally streaming on Starz. Fans have been eagerly awaiting this premiere as the super-sized seventh season of Outlander wrapped up well over a year ago, ending in January of 2025. With the series finally here, the last batch of episodes still brings with them some surprising questions from fans. The good news, though, is that these long-awaited episodes are not the end of the actual franchise itself.

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Though only seven reviews are present on Rotten Tomatoes for Outlander Season 8, the new season does still have a 100% rating on the review aggregator. It marks the only season of Outlander to have a perfect rating across the entire series, though the others still boast impressive ratings (Season 7 holds a 95% while Seasons 1 and 2 have 92%). In an 8 out of 10 review, IGN writes that the first three episodes of Season 8 have “strong momentum towards solving ongoing arcs while also honoring the legacy of characters who make the show what it is.” The AV Club gave the final season a B+, writing that Outlander Season 8 “succeeds (so far) by not cowering from the loftier questions about Claire and Jamie’s knotted place in the family tree of their past, present, and future.”

A lingering question for fans, though, with regard to Outlander Season 8 and its conclusion of the hit series is…how will they land the plane and end the show? The final batch of episodes is based on the ninth book in the series by Diana Gabaldon, but a tenth book in the series lingers in the wings and is being worked on by the author now. Elements of that story may very well make it into the show; it’s not abnormal for shows based on books to weave in elements from stories not published yet (ala Game of Thrones), but fans may find the ending of the show different from how the books themselves eventually end. As a result, it’s fair to wonder how it will all come together.

Though the final season of Outlander has finally premiered, with the series finale scheduled to be released on May 8. That said, it’s not the end of Outlander on Starz in the slightest. The prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, is already filming its second season right now. The success of that series could very well give way to even more stories and spinoffs from Outlander, which remains one of Starz’s tentpole shows. Time will tell how that plays out, but the ending of Outlander is far from the actual conclusion in more ways than one.