The Story Behind Tobias Menzies’s ‘Return’ to Outlander
Tobias Menzies was such an integral part of the early seasons of Outlander, but it’s almost jarring to hear his voice again as Frank given that it’s been years since we’ve seen or heard from the character. But now that it’s the final season of Outlander, and word around town is that Jamie will die in about a year’s time at a place called King’s Mountain, the timing was right to bring the character back.
At the end of the eighth season premiere episode, titled “Soul of a Rebel,” Jamie is looking at Frank’s book—and Frank’s author photo—when Frank (Tobias Menzies) says via voiceover, “Is it my face you see looming in the darkness?” Shaken, Jamie asks Claire why she didn’t tell him Frank looked like the torturous Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall.
“I haven’t thought about that in a very long time,” Claire responds. “I remember being startled by the resemblance, but once I was acquainted with Black Jack, that quickly wore off. Because they were so different.” Claire says she should have told Jamie but didn’t know how to explain it to him, for fear Jamie would have been upset by seeing someone who looked so much like Black Jack. Jamie says there would have been no point (“You are mine,” he says, before kissing her hand) but then asks if Frank was an honest man. “For the most part,” Claire says. “He kept secrets, but then again, so did I.” When Jamie asks if he can trust Frank’s words, Claire says Frank wouldn’t write something he knew to be false.
It’s only then that Jamie reveals that Frank has mentioned Jamie’s name no less than 14 times in the book. Jamie tells his wife that Frank wrote that war is coming to the back country and there will be a battle in about a year’s time at a place called King’s Mountain. It is there that James Fraser dies. Claire is in shock before the screen fades to black.
“We really wanted Tobias,” executive producer Matthew B. Roberts tells Glamour of getting Menzies back for the final season. “It is so fun. His voice is so impactful [regardless of the storyline], but in this case, it’s just really haunting. It’s amazing how much texture it brings to the show.”
While Menzies will continue to voice Frank for additional episodes this season, the original plan was to have the actor physically on set and see Frank again.
“We reached out to him because Matt and the writers came up with this great idea to see him and bring him back and have a full-circle moment,” executive producer Maril Davis says. “But Tobias is so busy. He’s so talented and doing so many things, but we did say, ‘Well, okay, plan B: If we can’t get you physically, can we have your voice?’ He was so excited to do it, and we were excited. I mean, we’ve missed him.”
Had Menzies been able to return to set and step into Frank’s shoes again, would that have changed the course of the final season at all? Davis says no, because they approached him early enough in the process to know they couldn’t go down that road.
Adds Roberts, “This was something so early that it didn’t manifest into what scenes would look like.”
Menzies aside, there are other familiar faces that will make their return for the final season. As viewers saw in the first episode back, Lauren Lyle (as Marsali MacKimmie Fraser) and César Domboy (Fergus Claudel Fraser) return for some sweet moments with Jamie and Claire, but that’s not all. “There might be a couple other people that show up that’s someone from the past, but you’ll have to wait and see,” Davis teases. “We can’t tell you yet.”
