**Warning – contains full spoilers for the final episode of Outlander**

Outlander stars Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan have weighed in on the show’s divisive ending, while also revealing that the series almost ended a year earlier.

Titled And the World Was All Around Us, the season 8 ending saw Jamie (Heughan) tragically shot dead after surviving the battle of Kings Mountain, with Claire (Balfe) rushing to his side.

A montage of their love story over the years then played, before the episode took viewers back to Kings Mountain, where Claire was still lying beside Jamie – though this time with her hair noticeably greyer. The pair then gasped for air, before the finale cut to the credits.

The ambiguity of the finale sparked much debate among fans, with many bemoaning the lack of closure for the characters.

Addressing the characters’ fates in an interview with Variety, Heughan recently said: “Are they in this realm or the next? Jamie is a ghost or another ghost, maybe it’s his younger self calling Claire to him.

“And if you look closely, you’ll see they’re both lying there on the magic stone, so maybe they’re in a different realm.”

Balfe added: “Every single person has their own idea about what, perhaps, should happen. And as people who were on the show from the very beginning and lived and breathed these characters, you have your [own] desire.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the actors revealed that Outlander almost ended earlier than it did, as their show contracts only went through to season 7.

“At the time, it felt like we would have been cheating the story, wrapping it up very quickly,” Balfe revealed. “We wanted to honour this journey and say goodbye in the right way.”

Heughan added: “When we got to the end of [Season] 7, it just didn’t feel satisfying.”

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Outlander is available to stream on MGM+ now.

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