Tobias Menzies in ‘Outlander’.Credit: 

Aimee Spinks/Starz

As fans of TV’s Outlander know, the villainous character of Black Jack Randall died in the season 3 premiere, back in 2017. But it almost didn’t go that way.

In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, actors Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe — who portrayed the central couple, Jamie and Claire, in the time-hopping love story — along with showrunner Matthew B. Roberts and executive producer Maril Davis, explain why Randall, played by Tobias Menzies didn’t survive.

“When we know we’re going to do something big, we call [Outlander books] Diana [Gabaldon] and go, ‘hey, we’re gonna go down this path. How do you feel about it?'” Roberts says. “We want to, of course, get her sign off on it. If she hated something so desperately, we wouldn’t go that way.”

You can see what’s coming.

“We really wanted to keep Black Jack alive, the studio and the network really wanted to keep Black Jack alive, so we call her and asked her,” Roberts says. “She said, ‘I really wish you wouldn’t do that.’ So he died.”

Black Jack met his demise at the infamous Battle of Culloden at the hands of Jamie himself. He literally dies in his enemy’s arms.

But Heughan recalls that another possibility was captured on camera.

“You filmed it,” he says, “I remember, filmed Black Jack’s eyes opening again on the battlefield.”

Davis observes that the crew had been “hoping” for a different answer from the author of the books in the fantasy series.

Alas, Roberts adds, “She said no, so he died.”

The cast and crew members reminisced about the ending of the epic just as the finale of the four-time Emmy nominee dropped on Starz.

“I only saw the episode a couple of days ago, and we filmed it a year and a half ago,” Heughan notes. “It’s so emotional. In fact, it’s been a very emotional week. Yesterday, we said goodbye to all the amazing crew and people that work at Starz. It’s been our home for over a decade. I was on the verge of tears. It’s such an odd, odd feeling. We — myself and Caitriona — thought that we’d come to terms with it. But it was so lovely to see it. It is really one long goodbye. Each character gets their moment, and the final moment itself was definitely a surprise for all of us.”

VIDEO

Watch the full conversation with the group above.