Outlander didn’t pull any of its punches when it aired on STARZ and Amazon Prime Video earlier this year. A large number of storylines certainly focussed on the Frasers’ day-to-day lives, but many storylines were watched with bated breath, as the family were subjected to a collection of dramatic endeavours. Perhaps one of the sadder moments in the season was the tragic death of Jamie Fraser’s (played by Sam Heughan) godfather Murtagh Fitzgibbons (Duncan Lacroix).
During episode six of season five, viewers witnessed the British take on the Regulators.
While Jamie was sworn to fight for the British, he found himself torn as he had to take on his godfather.
But in a flurry of passion and bullets, Murtagh was struck down by a member of Jamie’s team, leaving Jamie to hold his godfather – and best friend – as he lay dying.
Although the death was gruesome and miserable, fans expected Murtagh’s death to come around sooner-or-later.
Outlander season 5: Murtagh was killed off – but not for a while (Image: STARZ)
Outlander season 5: Jamie was devastated by the death of his godfather (Image: STARZ)
In the Diana Gabaldon-penned franchise of the same name, Murtagh was killed off in the second book – which roughly translated onto screen in the second season.
With his surprising survival set in stone, viewers were expecting Murtagh to eventually meet his fate in another unexpected way.
Now, Outlander showrunner Matthew B. Roberts has spoken to Town & Country Magazine about keeping Murtagh in the story longer than he ought to have been there.
He explained: “One of the reasons we kept Murtagh alive was to give Claire, and also Jamie, someone to talk to.”
Outlander season 5: Murtagh fell and lost his life during the battle (Image: STARZ)
Outlander: Young Ian returns to Fraser’s Ridge in episode eight
He later cited that using the characters’ internal monologues in the form of voiceovers “gets old after a while”.
This left the show’s creators with the conundrum of requiring more insight into their characters without using first-person dialogues.
This is also where Murtagh came in as a conduit for their thoughts, as Roberts added the highlander was a “natural choice”.
He continued: “The fans had grown to love him, and we loved him.
“Duncan is an amazing actor, so, after the first season, it became: ‘Alright, well, it’s a simple choice, let’s keep him alive.’”
Thankfully, this decision was a well-liked one and fans fell in love watching Murtagh create relationships with the various characters.
Although this decision changed the Outlander story drastically, viewers almost had an entirely different version of Jamie Fraser before the series began.
Recently Outlander author Gabaldon confessed she wasn’t convinced by Jamie star Sam when she first saw him.
On giving him a cursory Google search, she confessed: “At this point, he had relatively little film work and just a series of extremely bizarre still photos – his IMDb page is strange.
“Some of his photos are strange! I was sitting there typing, ‘this man is grotesque, what are you thinking?’”
Thankfully, she later came around to Sam as her incredible character.
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