Published Sep 16, 2026, 9:01 AM EDT
Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy.
Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones).
The first spinoff of the Outlander series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, returns for its second season to officially set in stone just what it is and likely always will be. This sophomore installment arrives only months after the central romantasy series came to a close with season 8, officially wrapping up the sweeping story of Jamie and Claire Fraser. Blood of My Blood season 1 premiered last year, in 2025, and did some work to create subtle threads of connective tissue between Outlander and its prequel. Now, season 2 officially sets out on its own.
I was given the opportunity to watch the first four episodes of Blood of My Blood season 2, and now that this is the only Outlander series currently ongoing, I was intrigued to see what Starz would do with this natural shift. The show's debut season was, naturally, used to set the stage and introduce Jamie and Claire's respective parents. Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2 has the much tougher job, therefore, of carrying the ball forward. This is where things really have to start moving, or else this prequel will forever live in Outlander's shadow.
Starz couldn't have given itself a better launching point for Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2. The last we saw Henry and Julia Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine and Hermione Corfield) in season 1, they were just about to put their hands on the standing stones of Craigh na Dun, hoping they would bring them home with their new son. Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) and Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater), on the other hand, finished off this first season with an elopement that was promptly followed by the official start of the Jacobite uprising.
Between season 1 leaving things in upheaval and Outlander season 8's definitive conclusion, Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2 kicks right off into the unknown. It's just as thrilling a concept as it should be, and there is a sense as these episodes begin that the sky is the limit. In many ways, Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2 delivers in this regard. There is so much room for this series to uniquely define itself, and it takes advantage of several big turns. Unfortunately, while otherwise lovely, these episodes struggle to break past Outlander's oldest plot issues.
Outlander: Blood Of My Blood Remains Even More Aesthetically Breathtaking Than Its Parent Series
Outlander has always done something spectacularly well, and Outlander: Blood of My Blood does it even better. This is a truly gorgeous TV series. The whole idea is that we get swept back in time, but the magical version of historical Scotland we find there must be more breathtaking than anything seen on screen before. Starz couldn't have picked a better month for season 2 to premiere, as the newly arrived cozy September vibes fit in perfectly with the melt-on-in aesthetic of this romantasy.
It's no stretch to call this series a sensory masterpiece.
It's not just the authentic Scottish scenery that helps Outlander: Blood of My Blood achieve this. Famed television composer Bear McCreary returns to set his music alongside Outlander's on-screen magic. Between this and thoughtfully poetic camera angles, it's no stretch to call this series a sensory masterpiece. Of course, we also can't ignore the updated title sequence for Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2, which again features Julie Fowlis' performance of McCreary's "For My Love That's Lost," accompanied by a slew of freshly stunning visuals.
The most important element to Outlander: Blood of My Blood's aesthetic is the chemistry within the story's two central romances. Outlander's Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe set the standard, and Irvine, Corfield, Roy, and Slater have done a beautiful job filling those shoes. Just as we would hope, season 2 turns things up a notch as the familiarity between these performers has increased. Blood of My Blood season 2 takes the steamy chemistry, butterfly-inducing dialogue, and longing romance of Outlander's earliest seasons and doubles it.
Said and done, this is precisely what Outlander should be. This franchise is built on a certain aesthetic, so the best thing Blood of My Blood season 2 could have done is commit completely and entirely to what viewers are looking for in a romantasy like this. The trouble is that, with this aesthetic so fantastically mastered, some of Blood of My Blood season 1's edge has been lost.
Blood Of My Blood Fully Embraces Many Of Outlander's Most Exhausting Problems
A significant triumph of Outlander season 8 was that it finally moved away from the repetitive and frustrating plot devices that had plagued the series in its middle to late installments. Before this, Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1 achieved something similar. While separated lovers, violent abuse, and overly dramatic romantic monologues were present and accounted for, both Outlander season 8 and Blood of My Blood season 1 avoided leaning on this beyond all other reason. That can't quite be said for Blood of My Blood season 2.
While the aesthetic is absolutely perfect, the actual substance of Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2's story is a bit lacking. Frustrating separations are once again the end-all-be-all of conflict. The characters seem to flip back and forth in their communication simply to fill audiences in rather than deliver meaningful dialogue. Character development heads in odd directions at odd moments. Continuity issues are explained away with dramatic demonstrations that don't even pretend to make any sense.
Far too much of the story in Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2 is simply convenience. The prequel series spent a good deal of time retconning details from Outlander, but spent even more time explaining why it didn't have the sort of dramatic consequences everyone anticipated. It's a bit of a shame, since this was a chance for the romantasy franchise to lean as far away from its old problems as possible. Still, I can hardly blame Blood of My Blood for holding course. At this point, this is just what Outlander is, and it has worked pretty well for it this far.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2 premieres its first two episodes on Starz at 12:00 AM ET on September 18, 2026.
Release Date September 18, 2026
Episodes 10
English (US) ·