If the buzz at Comic Con is anything to go by, the brand new Starz series "Outlander" has some very passionate fans - and the show hasn't even started airing yet.
Slated to debut August 9, the series is based on a wildly popular set of historical fiction/romance/scifi/fantasy books by author Diana Gabaldon. "Outlander" has had a big presence at Comic Con, with an interactive booth on the con floor, and a splashy premiere of its first episode held at the Spreckels Theater in San Diego on Friday night.
Guest appearances at the premiere included the author herself, as well as series executive producer Ronald D. Moore ("Battlestar Galactica") and stars Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Tobias Menzies, Graham McTavish, and Lotte Verbeek. Composer Bear McCreary, who is providing the score for season one, was scheduled to perform live at the event.
As with "Black Sails" last year, when Starz brought a replica pirate ship to the con floor, the network once again went all out to promote their new series. The "Outlander" outpost at Comic Con features a castle - yes! - surrounded by standing stones and trees, one of which bears a "missing" poster with a plea for information on the whereabouts of Claire Randall. She's the heroine of "Outlander", and her disappearance from post-war Scotland and mysterious reappearance in the 18th century highlands is the first major plot point of the series.
Visitors to the "Outlander" booth have been checking out sneak peek footage and mingling with kilted Scottish clansmen. A lucky few also attended an autograph signing with cast and creators at the booth on Friday afternoon. And of course, Friday's "Outlander" panel in the convention center's thousand-plus capacity Room 6A was a huge hit.
Fans of Diana Gabaldon's books are already enamoured of the time-traveling romance between 20th century nurse Claire Randall and 18th century Scots clansman Jamie Fraser, and the Starz series is poised to garner a whole new set of fans for the star-crossed pair. Con attendees who caught glimpses of the story for the first time this weekend are likely to tune in as well, so it seems "Outlander", Starz, and Comic Con are a match made in heaven.
