Traveling Through Time! See the ‘Outlander’ Characters in Different Eras

New times and places! Throughout Outlander’s tenure, Claire Randall and the rest of the Fraser family have traveled through time — from 18th century Scotland to 20th century America.

The Starz drama — which premiered in August 2014 — introduced viewers to combat nurse Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) as she’s swept back in time from 1945 to 1793. There, she meets chivalrous Scottish warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and the rest of the Outlander characters. Throughout the years, the drama series — based on Diana Gabaldon’s 13-book franchise — chronicled Claire’s time-traveling exploits across the globe.

“Claire is a woman of the ’40s, so I did a lot of research about nurses who worked on the front lines in the Second World War,” the Belfast actress told UPI about portraying the literary heroine in September 2014. “I found some great books that gave first-hand accounts of that and I got to meet with an herbalist and, of course, Diana’s book is kind of the bible for us all.”

Balfe continued at the time: “We talked a lot about, ‘What would Claire’s life have been like if she hadn’t gone through the stones?’ … I strongly believe she wouldn’t have been happy if they had moved to Oxford and he had taken up his teaching post and she had been this stay-at-home wife, who had a hobby on the side. I don’t think she would have been able to survive in that. So, in a weird way, this kind of gave her the opportunity to become the best version of herself. In the first season and the first book, she is just primarily looking to survive, but I think, as the story progresses, you really see her go out into the world and take in the bigger picture and become this incredibly strong, self-possessed woman.”

While Claire and daughter Brianna (played by Sophie Skelton) have both inherited the time-traveling gene, not every character possesses the gift to experience different timelines.

“Jamie doesn’t have [the ability], there’s certain people that it can be passed down through generations but certain people can’t,” Balfe explained during a December 2017 appearance on the U.K.’s This Morning.

While the Men in Kilts alum’s character has remained in the past timeline, he’s also been able to experience different settings. During season 5, Jamie and Claire ended up shipwrecked amid their travels home, which brought them to Revolutionary War-era America. (The timeframe continued during season 6.)

“As an actor, it was such a great story line. It gave me and the character a dramatic decision to make,” Heughan told Elle in May 2020 about his fifth season journey. “I had a lot of influence with the symbolism of the redcoat. In shooting it, there were certain things I had to push back on or ask for more time on for Jamie, and when he loses Murtagh [Fraser, played by Duncan Lacroix] we had to do some reshoots. It was great to have the writer and director’s ear, to work closely with them to get the best out of the story.”

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Scroll below to see photos of the Outlander characters throughout the different time periods and settings: