Outlander is coming to an end, and Sam Heughan is opening up about saying goodbye to his character.

The Scottish actor, 45, has been playing Jamie Fraser since the Starz series premiered in 2014, alongside Caitriona Balfe’s Claire Fraser, and as the final season premiere approaches (March 6), he candidly admits that it’s hard to feel satisfied.

“I don’t think you could ever be satisfied,” Heughan tells PEOPLE. “I honestly think you couldn’t, because we haven’t done all the books and we haven’t fully realized the book series.”

The show was adapted from Diana Gabaldon’s book series, which began in 1991 and is not yet complete. Gabaldon announced that the 10th book in the series, A Blessing for a Warrior Going Out, would be the last, but no details about its release have been confirmed.

Heughan says that he and Balfe, 46, “came back to do this season to give an ending that was satisfactory — or tied up some things” for fans.

“At the end of season 7, I certainly felt I wasn’t ready to walk away,” he says. “I still had an itch to scratch, and I think the fans would’ve felt that as well, but it’s hard. How do you tie up something like this?”

Balfe, 46, has similarly mixed feelings about whether she’s satisfied with how the series ends. “It’s hard to say, because going into it, we had no idea what was going to happen. This season was probably the first one that we went in sort of blind — except for season 1, maybe,” she tells PEOPLE.

Given that Gabaldon is “still writing,” the TV show has “diverged from the books more,” says Balfe. (The most recent book in the series — the first since 2014 — was released in 2021.)

“It wasn’t clear where [showrunner] Matt [Roberts] was going to take the story, and I wouldn’t have wanted to have had his job, because that’s a really tough job to have, because everyone has opinions,” Balfe continues. “And I think every single person wants their character to have their moment, so it would be hard to listen to everybody. So he kept his cards very close to his chest, which I totally understand.”

Heughan promises that “everyone does get their fair moment” in this final season, though. “Of course, there are always people that are never satisfied, but I think, hopefully, this season will provide some comfort to people.”

As the pair prepare to say goodbye for good to the series — which wrapped filming in 2024 — Heughan says he feels “very lucky” for the experience he and Balfe have had. “Going and doing other jobs now, or doing press or anything, it’s like, we know. We’ve done this before now. So it’s given us a great deal,” he says. “It’s really changed my life.”

Season 8 picks up with Jamie and Claire finding that “the war has followed them home to Fraser’s Ridge, now a thriving settlement that has grown and flourished in their absence,” per the official synopsis. “With new arrivals and changes made during their years away, the Frasers are confronted with the question of what they are willing to sacrifice for the place they call home and, more importantly, what they would sacrifice to stay together.”

“While the Frasers keep a united front against outside intruders, family secrets finally coming to light threaten to tear them apart from the inside,” the synopsis continues. “Although they’ve left the war for America’s freedom behind, their fight for Fraser’s Ridge has only just begun.”

Alongside Balfe and Heughan, Outlander stars Sophie Skelton, Richard Rankin, John Bell, David Berry, Charles Vandervaart and Izzy Meikle-Small.

The final season of Outlander premieres Friday, March 6 on Starz.