"Outlander's" Sam Heughan Gave Us an Update on His "Clan Lands" TV Show

From Oprah Magazine

• Outlander actors Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish announced their Clan Lands project in July 2019.

• Clan Lands will focus on "history, culture and the landscape of Scotland."

• McTavish played Outlander character Dougal MacKenzie, diehard Jacobite rebel and uncle to Sam Heughan's Jamie Fraser.

• Check out what else we learned during our Scotland set visit.

Outlander season 5 returns on February 16, and the steamy historical drama's 2019 Netflix debut has gained the show even more new fans. If the show's first three seasons had you Googling phrases like "Battle of Culloden" and "what was the Jacobite uprising" to get some real-life background on the plot, get excited: The show's own Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish have teamed up on a series to further educate you on all things Scotland.

Heughan gave us a Clan Lands update during our visit to the Outlander set in September, explaining that his concept for the format evolved as production progressed. "I wanted to do a podcast in my spare time, and I thought I'd shoot some visuals for it," he says. "The more I was getting into producing it, it's the first thing I’d produced, and I really enjoyed it. So I decided to make it into a TV show! We've finished shooting and dare I say, I think it looks really fun."

The actor describes it as "basically a road trip around Scotland with my co-star Graham McTavish, who's a character in himself. We'd been playing these Highland warriors for years now, faking it, and we thought, 'you know, it'd be nice to sort of find out a bit more about it.'"

Given that Heughan was born and raised in Scotland, and McTavish was born in Glasgow himself, it was a chance for the two friends to learn about their roots. "I've always been interested in Scotland's history, the clans, and the culture," he says. "We have such huge tourism from Outlander. We just wanted to sort of go on that adventure as well, and bring some of that to people, because it's part of the show that we don't get to explore anymore as the show has moved on."

The Clan Lands Instagram and Twitter accounts first materialized in July of 2019, with the bio announcing its focus on the Scottish clans' "history, culture and the landscape of Scotland... if these two don’t get lost or drunk. Or both." Heughan and McTavish announced the project on their respective social media accounts, sharing a cute photo of the two friends and (SPOILER ALERT for those who just started watching!) former cast mates.

"Great catching up with my murdering nephew @samheughan and planning our “Clanlands” podcast," McTavish wrote. "Stay tuned for a lot of fun, history, landscape and kilts."

"I’m not sure I’m ready for this...but it’ll be an adventure!" Heughan captioned the same photo.

McTavish played Dougal Mackenzie on Outlander, Clan Mckenzie's war chieftan and uncle to Heughan's character Jamie Fraser. Dougal was instrumental in getting Claire and Jamie together via a marriage of convenience that turned into a steamy love story. In later episodes, Dougal's ideas on how to reclaim Scotland's independence from English rule caused a rift between his and Jamie's soldiers, and ultimately cost Dougal his life.

Like Heughan, McTavish has made no secret of his Scottish pride. The actor has been busy since his Outlander days: He's co-starred in AMC comic book adaptation Preacher, voiced Dracula on animated series Castlevania, and appeared in Aquaman and Lucifer.

What else can listeners expect from Clan Lands in addition to the history lessons and, we're guessing, a sampling or two of Heughan's "The Sassenach" whisky?

"There have been rumours of camping..." McTavish teased in a comment on Heughan's Instagram post. A January 2020 post, which found the two looking like they're straight out of a buddy comedy, teased a forthcoming finished trailer.

At the time of our interview, Heughan couldn't share what platform we could expect Clan Lands to arrive on—but Heughan says if it's well-received, Heughan and McTavish would love to make more episodes.

"There's a wealth of information now that we want to explore," Heughan tells OprahMag. "And if it does well, we've already got a season two plan."

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