After Outlander ended on the 2026 TV schedule after eight seasons, the franchise has remained alive and well thanks to the prequel Outlander: Blood of My Blood, now in its second season. Of course, the series has been a hit on Starz, but I can’t help but miss the original cast. Luckily, Sam Heughan is beginning to land roles post-Outlander. I just can’t decide what I’m most excited for.
Heughan starred on Outlander as Jamie Fraser for the series’ entire run. While he was able to do other projects during Outlander, the fact that he’s finally doing projects post-Outlander is certainly exciting, as it marks a new era for him. In fact, he's going to be in not one but two new shows, both with great casts and intriguing plot lines.
TVLine has just reported that the actor is set to star in the upcoming Paramount+ drama series Ascent alongside Viola Davis. The show is described as “a character-driven thriller set in the dangerous world of global corporate crisis and damage control.” Heughan is set to play Conal, one of Ascent Ventures’ top reps. Per the character description:
A lethally charming and natural chameleon, Conal uses social cunning and ruthlessness to get the job done, and he always gets a thrill out of completing a mission.
This already sounds like an intense drama, and I cannot wait to see Heughan as Conal. Conal seems pretty ruthless and won't quit until the job is done, and the role is definitely different from Jamie Fraser, a Highland warrior in 18th-Century Scotland. It will be hard to see him as someone other than Jamie, especially now that Outlander is done, but I’m looking forward to what he brings to the new, modern series, which comes from writer John Logan.
And this is not the only show Heughan has in the works. Announced back in January, Heughan is also starring in Embassy, a geopolitical action-thriller series. Via Deadline, he joins Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons as a British SAS soldier. The six-part series comes from AGC Television, Ascendant Fox, and Turbine Studios. According to the official logline:
The series follows Layla (Kendrick), a sharp and resourceful American diplomat, who faces an impossible choice to protect the U.S. Ambassador (Simmons) or follow his orders to exfiltrate a high value asset when armed mercenaries storm the U.S. Embassy in London. She’s forced to rely on her instincts and the reluctant help of her battle-hardened ex-fiancé, Connor Wright (Heughan), in the tense hours before extraction.
Production on Embassy kicked off in February in London and Cologne. At the time of Heughan’s addition, Embassy was not attached to any streamer or platform. MGM+ officially picked up the series in July. As of now, a premiere date has not been announced, but the wait will be worth it.
Embassy and Ascent both sound so fun that I literally cannot make up my mind about which I’m looking forward to most. I’m just happy about the fact that we won’t have to wait too long to see Heughan back on TV. Hopefully, more information on the series will be revealed soon, but this excitement can’t be contained. At the very least, fans can get their Heughan fix with all eight seasons of Outlander on Starz. The first seven seasons are streaming with a Netflix subscription, with Season 8 likely coming to the platform in the near future.
