The Disney-owned streaming platform has pulled the plug on its much-anticipated “Buffy the Vampire” revival, a year after star Sarah Michelle Gellar confirmed the series was officially in the works. A “really sad” Gellar delivered news of the pre-debut cancellation to fans in a brief Instagram video shared Saturday. She was set to executive produce the series, tentatively titled “Buffy: New Sunnydale,” with Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao set to direct.
“I never thought I would find myself back in Buffy’s stylish yet affordable boots and thanks to Chloé I was reminded [of] how much I love her and how much she means not only to me but to all of you,” Gellar said. “This doesn’t change any of that.”
She added: “I promise if the apocalypse actually comes you can still beep me.”
Gellar’s bittersweet announcement prompted Los Angeles resident Bren O’Brien to organize a rally on Monday outside Hulu’s headquarters in Santa Monica. O’Brien, a lifelong “Buffy” fan, displayed several posters urging the streamer to reconsider its decision along the sidewalk. One bright red poster read “Bring Buffy Back!!” scrawled in black ink. Another, bearing Gellar’s likeness, asserted, “Canceling Buffy Isn’t smart, the world needs a hero!”
“I’m really sad. This was a moment that I’ve been waiting decades for,” O’Brien said.
Hulu officially began production on the “Buffy” sequel series after years of careful consideration by Gellar. Last year, the cast for the pilot was assembled while Gellar vowed , “We will only make this show if we can do it right.”
The “Buffy” star did not share additional details about the cancellation in her weekend post, but Zhao said at the 2026 Academy Awards red carpet that she was “not surprised” by Hulu’s decision.
“I had an incredible, incredible time with Sarah, with all the cast and crew doing this. We, first and foremost, see ourselves as the guardians of the original show,” the “Hamnet” filmmaker told Variety on Sunday. “Our priority for Sarah and for us has always been to be truthful to the show, to be truthful to our fans. So, things happen for a reason, and we keep our hearts open and we welcome the mystery.”
Actor Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who was set to lead the show as a supernatural slayer opposite Gellar, lamented the cancellation on Instagram. “Your slayer,” she captioned a photo of herself in costume.
“Buffy” premiered in 1997 and aired on the WB until 2001 when it moved to UPN. Though the series ended in 2003 , it spawned the spinoff series “Angel” which aired from 1999 to 2004 on the WB. Other prospective “Buffy” revivals, however, reportedly struggled to make it past development. Additionally, several actors in recent years have accused “Buffy” creator Joss Whedon of misconduct.
After Gellar broke the cancellation news, “Buffy” fans reacted online, with many of them slamming Hulu for its “terrible decision.” A representative for Hulu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
O’Brien, among the disappointed fans, said he began posting about the cancellation online, creating posters and promoting his rally. He said he was surprised by Hulu’s decision because “Buffy” is “such a valuable IP to have,” considering its generations of fans.
“It’s just a no-brainer,” he added.
Erin McClory, a fellow “Buffy” fan, joined O’Brien outside of Hulu’s headquarters and held a poster depicting a wooden stake through a broken heart. She said she hopes rallying around the slain “Buffy” series can help persuade Hulu to reconsider its decision or prompt another network to pick up the show.
“It seems crazy for them to not even give it a chance,” she said.
Though both O’Brien and McClory say they’re eager for new “Buffy” material down the line, their support for the show remains steadfast.
“We’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing and keep sharing Buffy edits [on social media],” O’Brien said, then sighed. “I want new content.”
LA28 revealed the schedule Monday for an extended Olympic soccer tournament that will begin four days before the opening ceremony.
The soccer competition begins July 10 with four men’s group stage games across New York, Columbus, Nashville and St. Louis. The women’s tournament begins July 11 with games in all six of the preliminary round sites, including San José and San Diego.
The soccer competition, which will feature 12 women’s teams and eight men’s teams for the first time, has the longest competition window of any sport in Olympic history because the International Olympic Committee Executive Board wanted to give each team two extra rest days throughout the tournament.
Each team will have two days of rest between group stage games and three days between the final group game and the quaterfinal rounds. The men will begin their knockout round games on July 20 while the women start quarterfinal play on July 21, including one women’s quarterfinal match at the Rose Bowl.
The iconic stadium in Pasadena will host only five matches for the Olympics, including a men’s and women’s semifinal July 24 and the men’s gold medal match on July 28 and the women’s on July 29.
San Diego’s SnapDragon Stadium will have the most matches of any site with 11. In addition to three days of women’s group stage games, the home of San Diego State football, San Diego FC and San Diego Wave FC will host a women’s quarterfinal July 21, men’s and women’s semifinals July 24 and both bronze medal matches.
With the coast-to-coast soccer tournament shaping up, LA28 announced additional ticket opportunities for the competition, allowing fans interested in attending soccer matches to buy up to 12 soccer tickets in addition to the current 12-ticket maximum for all other Olympic events. The 12-ticket maximum for Olympic events includes the opening and closing ceremonies on July 14 and 30, respectively, which each have a four-ticket limit.
Ticket registration for the first ticket drop ends Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. PDT with the first tickets going on sale to locals in Southern California and Oklahoma beginning April 2. The first general ticket drop begins April 9. Fans who are randomly selected to participate in the first ticket drop will be notified via email between March 31 and April 7 with information and their assigned timeslot to purchase tickets.
More than 5 million fans have already registered for Olympic tickets, LA28 said, with Paralympic tickets going on sale in 2027. The organizing committee expects 14 million tickets to be available for the Games, which could eclipse the total ticket sales record set by Paris in 2024.
They revealed they were starstruck when Ginger Spice popped into their rehearsal at a West London studio last month, accompanied by her husband Christian Horner’s daughter.
Asked about their celebrity fans, Danny said: “The legend that is Geri Halliwell and her step-daughter came to the rehearsal studio to watch our set. They had wanted to come to our London show, but were due to be away when it was on, so we invited them to our rehearsals.
“Geri was like a pocket rocket. Petite and loads of personality.
Last month, they attended their first Brit Awards, in Manchester, and have told how they brushed shoulders with singers Lola Young and Sam Fender, as well as Happy Mondays maracas player Bez.
Cruz said: “I was partying with Bez in the DJ booth — he is funny. He and I have got to go to Ibiza one day.”
To celebrate Mother’s Day, the boys have been treating their mums after receiving their first big pay cheque.
Hendrik said: “I have been saving money to try and finish my mum and dad’s house. They have been wanting to finish it for years.”
Despite the global stardom that awaits, it sounds like the boys are keeping their feet on the ground.
SIMON ‘PROUD’ OF LADS
DECEMBER 10 have revealed how their mentor Simon Cowell was proud of them after their sold-out London show.
The music mogul and his fiancee Lauren Silverman attended their gig at the O2 Academy Islington, in North London, last month.
December 10 have revealed how their mentor Simon Cowell was proud of them after their sold-out London showCredit: Getty
Band member Nicolas said: “He really enjoyed that we incorporated instruments into the live show, and when he spoke to us, that was one of the main things that made him really happy and proud.”
John added: “He has also always said that he just wants great songs. Over the past few months that we have been recording music, we have been working towards that.”
And the boys reckon it still feels surreal seeing thousands of teenagers queuing to hear them play.
Nicolas said: “I wouldn’t say it’s overwhelming, it’s more of a strange feeling, because the first show was a bit of a shock.
“It is a feeling for me, personally, that I don’t think I will get used to.”
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HE HAZ TO SEE MATES
HE is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, but Harry Styles says he had to change his mindset so he did not become a recluse.
He explained: “When you shut out a lot of the things that are assumed can be negative, you also just unconsciously shut out a ton of positive things.
Harry Styles says he had to change his mindset so he did not become a recluseCredit: Getty
“It can be hard to go to a bar and hang out with friends because there’s maybe people who would act [in a certain] way.
“There’s also incredible people that you can meet in that bar – that you also shut yourself off from.”
He added on SiriusXM: “I was having some experiences where I was meeting some really great people that were kind of really planting the seed of, like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to shut myself off from this world’.”
It comes as his record Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally has topped the albums chart, while his track American Girls is No1 in the singles rundown.
DENISE VAN OUTEN and Johnny Vaughan are creating a new Big Breakfast-style TV show 25 years after the original was axed.
I can reveal the pair, who presented the Channel 4 show in the Nineties, are working on a new format set to shake up TV schedules.
Denise said: “In my new touring show [An Evening With Denise], of all the things I’ve done, The Big Breakfast section gets the biggest reaction. I think people are still craving that chaos and the fun – we’ve lost it.”
She added: “I’m working on something with Johnny, it’s going to have that feel to it. It’s all come from the show and speaking to people. I was like, ‘Oh, people are missing this, they want this’.”
I cannot wait.
YOU’RE SO ROUGE, CHRISTINA
CHRISTINA AGUILERA was red hot on stage in this basque and matching gloves.
The US hitmaker teamed them with thigh-skimming black boots in Austin, Texas, as she headlined the Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival.
Christina Aguilera was red hot on stage in this basque and matching glovesCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Highlights included a performance of her 2001 hit Lady Marmalade, from film Moulin Rouge!, as fireworks lit up the sky.
MAYA’S VILLA TO VILLAIN
MAYA JAMA has revealed what her dream movie role would be – and it’s not what you might expect.
The Love Island host, who is set to star in the second series of Guy Ritchie’s Netflix crime-comedy The Gentlemen, said: “I’ve always said I don’t want to be what people expect me to be on camera.
Maya Jama has revealed what her dream movie role would be – and it’s not what you might expectCredit: Getty
“I’d want to be the complete opposite to that . . . so a monster or a mean, evil person. A villain maybe would be nice.”
The pair, who married in 2018, have both appointed legal teams and have quietly started proceedings.
Millie Mackintosh and Hugo Taylor have filed for divorceCredit: Getty
Reality star turned author Millie, who has two daughters with entrepreneur Hugo, has been through the process before, having split from rapper Professor Green, who she was married to from 2013 to 2016.
A pal said: “Fans will be sad to hear that their relationship is really over, but the pair just want a clean break.
“Millie and Hugo are committed to co-parenting their two young children and keeping everything stable. They are still very amicable with each other and have a lot of respect for one another.
“They want the divorce to go through as painlessly as possible and are focusing on work in the meantime.”
Professor Green has a son with model and actress Karima McAdams, who he dated for five years after splitting with Millie.
Now, he is back in touch with Millie and said: “There’s no resentment in me. She is gorgeous. We were not good for each other at that time.
“We spoke about our mutual diagnosis (ADHD) and our kids.”
The couple are eyeing up Son Marroig, a stunning, 17th century, clifftop temple on the Spanish island for their summer nuptials.
Molly Smith and Tom Clare are set to tie the knot in Majorca – home of the original dating show’s villaCredit: Supplied
The venue is popular among celebrities, with Pixie Geldof, weatherman Alex Beresford and Man City defender Nathan Ake all having held their ceremonies there.
A source said: “Majorca is a stunning destination for a wedding and there is plenty of privacy on the island. Many of the buildings are difficult to access by road and it has a secluded feel.
“There is guaranteed sun and it offers a beautiful backdrop with the most stunning sunsets.”
Tom and Molly do a weekly podcast called NearlyWeds and post regular vlogs about their planning.
Congrats guys . . .
EX-PM SNAPS GEM OF A SHOT
GEMMA COLLINS posed with an unlikely fan at the Cheltenham races this week – as I am told that former PM David Cameron asked for a photo.
And reality favourite Gemma was only too happy to oblige David and wife Samantha in the Royal Box.
Gemma Collins with David and Samantha Cameron at the Cheltenham racesCredit: Gemma Collins/Instagram
A source said: “Gemma was honoured that David asked her for a picture. They chatted about politics and her fondness of current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.”
Chuffed Gemma quickly shared the snap with her 2.2million Instagram followers.
She wrote: “It was lovely to be in the Royal Box and have a good chat with David Cameron and his lovely wife. We spoke politics and . . . what we were going to bet on next.”
Gemma, who is a face of bookmaker Paddy Power, won a mighty impressive £20,000 at Cheltenham – and £5,000 off just one bet.
The GC was spotted shouting, “I’m loaded” as she basked in her glory alongside stars including Danny Dyer and Peter Crouch.
A fatal shooting near TPC Sawgrass meant spectators were delayed entering the course before day three of the Players Championship.
St Johns County Sheriff’s Office said two people were shot and killed at 22:30 local time on Friday, less than a mile from the course in Florida.
The suspect, who has been named as Christian Barrios, fled on to the course before being arrested in Nassau County at about 08:00 on Saturday after a car chase, according to police.
Sheriff Robert Hardwick said Barrios “made contact” with employees at TPC Sawgrass during his attempted escape.
“He picked up – we believe it was a radio that belonged to the PGA Tour, not one of our radios and we know he dropped it after that. Our canines used it as a scent when they came in there,” Hardwick said.
Gates at Sawgrass were due to open for fans at 07:30 but entry was delayed until 09:00, with the PGA citing “operational considerations” as the reason for their decision.
Third-round play at the PGA Tour’s flagship event began on time.
Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg led the tournament after two rounds having shot a nine-under-par 63 on Friday.
Rangers say “all parties must be prepared to have their actions and decision-making subjected to proper scrutiny”, with Celtic referencing “serious concerns” raised by supporters about pre-match access arrangements.
The Ibrox club have called for the review to be “thorough and wide-ranging” and to “include the broader context” around the match, from initial decisions on ticket allocation through to the post-match incidents.
Their statement adds: “The disorder that occurred on Sunday was unacceptable and we condemn it unequivocally. Safety must always come first in football, for supporters, players and everyone working in and around the game.
“There are now a number of serious issues which require proper examination. For that reason, we agree that there should be a fully independent review into the events surrounding the match.”
Rangers have vowed to represent the club and their supporters “robustly” but say they will take action – “including the potential withdrawal of ticketing privileges and stadium bans” – against anyone identified and convicted.
The club also say they are “appalled” to discover graffiti mocking the Ibrox disaster, which claimed the lives of 66 supporters in January 1971.
They add: “To desecrate their memory is vile. It is cowardly. It is shameful. This is not football rivalry and it is not banter. It is the abuse of a tragedy that claimed 66 lives.”
Meanwhile, Celtic say they are awaiting a response from the Green Brigade regarding safety and security measures – as required by the police and Glasgow City Council’s Safety Advisory Group – to allow the club “to advocate re-entry” of the banned fan group to Celtic Park.
Tommy DeCarlo, a longtime fan of Boston who became the classic rock band’s lead singer in the late 2000s, has died. He was 60.
DeCarlo died Monday following a battle with brain cancer, his family announced on Facebook.
“[H]e fought with incredible strength and courage right up until the very end,” the family’s statement said. “During this difficult time, we kindly ask that friends and fans respect our family’s privacy as we grieve and support one another.”
Born April 23, 1965, in Utica, N.Y., DeCarlo said he first started listening to Boston — the 1970s rock band known for its instrumental overtures and hits including “More Than a Feeling,” “Don’t Look Back” and “Peace of Mind” — as a young teenager, according to the group’s website. The vocalist credited his love for Boston’s original frontman Brad Delp and his desire to sing along with him on the radio for helping to develop his own singing voice.
After Delp’s death in 2007, DeCarlo, then a manager at a Home Depot, sent a link to his MySpace page filled with Boston covers as well as an original song in tribute to Delp to the Boston camp, hoping for a chance to participate in a tribute show for the singer. They kindly turned down his offer.
But eventually, Boston founder and lead songwriter Tom Scholz heard DeCarlo’s cover of “Don’t Look Back” and invited the singer to perform a few songs with the band at the tribute. That tribute show would be DeCarlo’s first time ever performing with any band in front of a crowd, but it wouldn’t be his last. He continued to perform with the band at live shows for years, and even joined them on some tracks for their 2013 album, “Life, Love & Hope.”
DeCarlo also formed the band Decarlo with his son, guitarist Tommy DeCarlo Jr. In October, the singer announced he was stepping away from performing due to “unexpected health issues.”
“[P]erforming and sharing music with all of you around the world has been one of the greatest joys of my life,” DeCarlo wrote in his Facebook post. “I can’t thank you all enough for the incredible love, support, and understanding you’ve shown me and my family during this time. It truly means the world to us.”
The famed Magic City adult entertainment club won’t be featured at next week’s Atlanta Hawks promotional night, the NBA announced on Monday.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged concerns from others in the league on Monday, saying that his decision to cancel the collaboration is in the best interests of the “broader NBA community.”
“While we appreciate the team’s perspective and their desire to move forward,” he said in a statement, “we have heard significant concerns from a broad array of league stakeholders, including fans, partners and employees.”
The Hawks announced its “Magic City Monday” promotion in late February, featuring a halftime performance by Atlanta-based artist T.I., a collaborative hoodie and the offering of some of the club’s popular wings, including the lemon-pepper variety named after former Hawks player Lou Williams.
Hawks principal owner Jami Gertz was a producer on “Magic City: An American Fantasy,” a docuseries that aired on Starz. Still, the team’s decision to collaborate with the Atlanta strip club ruffled some feathers in the NBA.
San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet asked the Hawks to cancel the promotional night in a post on Medium last week, saying that it would “reflect poorly on us as an NBA community, specifically in being complicit in the potential objectification and mistreatment of women in our society.”
Others had argued that Magic City is a big part of Atlanta culture and should be celebrated as such.
The Hawks wrote in a statement on Monday that it was disappointed with the NBA’s decision but would respect it.
Rapper T.I. will still perform at halftime, but the live recording of the Hawks AF Podcast featuring Gertz, T.I. and Magic City founder Michael Barney was canceled. Fans who pre-ordered the collaboration hoodie will still receive one, but the sweatshirts won’t be available for purchase at the game, the Hawks wrote on X.
“As a franchise, we remain committed to celebrating the best of Atlanta — with authenticity — in ways that continue to unite and bring us all together,” the Hawks wrote.
Times staff writer Chuck Schilken contributed to this report
Author Diana Gabaldon knew readers had been mentally casting the timeless main couple at the center of her “Outlander” book saga since the first novel’s release in the early ‘90s — particularly its leading man, a tall and burly Scottish Highlander with striking red hair. She recalls a 50-year-old German actor who, she says, “always looked like he’d been dipped in cooking oil” among the imaginary candidates. Another was a 5-foot-4-inch race car driver. She quickly learned not to weigh in.
“They would keep asking me who I’d like to play Jamie — ‘Nobody,’ I kept saying because on the rare occasion when I mentioned some possibility, the immediate response would be shrieks of dismissive outrage and heapings of scorn that went on for days (online),” she says over email. Besides, she felt the whole notion of considering prospects was pointless because, as she puts it, it’s not like Hollywood would want to adapt a 300,000-word book anyway.
However, Ronald D. Moore and Maril Davis, longtime collaborators through their Tall Ship Productions banner under Sony Pictures Television, did. And Gabaldon was thrust back into the casting debacle, watching test videos and learning not to judge a book by its cover — or actors (in this case, Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe) by the photos that pop up in a Google search: “Sam doesn’t look like Jamie, and Caitriona doesn’t look like Claire, but both of them can be those people, and that’s all that matters,” she says. And they were those people.
In 2014, the duo brought to the screen the epic story of Claire Randall, a British combat nurse who is mysteriously transported back to 1743 Scotland and marries Scottish warrior Jamie Fraser to survive. Together, they ignite a passionate romance that traverses decades and endures brutal separations, wars and time travel. After spinning its own sweeping narrative for more than a decade, the Starz series is launching its eighth and final season on Friday.
In “Outlander,” Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) is a British combat nurse who is mysteriously transported back to 1743 Scotland and marries Scottish warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) to survive.
(Ed Miller / Starz)
And it won’t exactly be a by-the-book ending. The final season pulls from the remaining material in Book 8, as well as Book 9 — Gabaldon is working on a 10th installment, “A Blessing for a Warrior Going Out” — leaving Matthew B. Roberts, the showrunner, and the writing team to craft an original ending for television. In a signal of how much pressure there was to do right by the beloved fictional couple, four endings were written and filmed.
“Diana’s been involved since Day 1 — she reads everything, she sees everything,” Roberts said by video conference. “I told all the endings that were going to be written. She briefed me a little bit of where she might be going, not the ending of the books, but just where the book might be going. I wanted to at least incorporate some of that in some of the endings that were written.”
Can it be anything other than a happy ending? Maybe the clue is in “I Love Lucy.” Lucy and Ricky Ricardo‘s love story was often a reference point for Roberts throughout his time on “Outlander.”
“No matter what trouble Lucy got in, no matter what she was doing, never did you think they were ever going to break up,” he says. “That’s Jamie and Claire, no matter what happens, no matter what he goes through or what she goes through, no matter what trouble or what they tell each other sometimes, we’ll never think they break up. And the audience knows that too, and we knew, if you just stayed true to that, then that love story would be successful.”
Ahead of the show’s final season premiere, The Times spoke with Balfe and Heughan to get their thoughts on bringing the historical romance to life and the journey to reach the final chapter.
In the spirit of the Season 8 premiere, which has a moment where Claire and Jamie reflect on the early days of their story, let’s travel back in time. Do you remember how this series was first presented to you and what went through your mind?
Balfe: I think the logline I saw was “nurse goes back to Scotland and then goes back 200 years in time and meets a Highlander.” I think I had two lines. That was all I had.
Heughan: It sounded like it was never gonna work. I found out it was a book series, and I think we both read it, didn’t we?
Balfe: Yeah, I read the book in four days before we tested. You’d already been cast at that point … I was living in L.A. I had tiny bit parts in a few films, and I was definitely struggling. I had booked to go on a trip to India, sent my passport into the Indian embassy. Of course, that’s exactly when I found out that maybe I had to travel to London for this test.
Heughan: At the time, I had failed attempts at pilot season, and I was back in London working in a bar and thinking, “I can’t afford to do this and I’m 34 years old. I should probably think about giving up.” Because there was no way I could support myself. I wasn’t loving it.
Balfe: You were 33, by the way.
Heughan: Oh, yes. I was younger. Then this thing came through. And actually, to be honest, the logline and perhaps the dialogue, when I read it, I just thought, “I know this guy.” There just was something very familiar.
“At the time, I had failed attempts at pilot season, and I was back in London working in a bar and thinking, ‘I can’t afford to do this and I’m 34 years old. I should probably think about giving up,’” says Heughan.(Sophia Spring / For The Times)
Tell me about the decision to say goodbye to this show and these characters. Does it feel like the right time?
Balfe: By the time we got to Season 7, that was our last season that we were contracted for, and there were conversations going around that they — the writers — felt that they had eight seasons [for this story]; that that was sort of an organic finish to it. But we were more than halfway through Season 7 before anyone came to talk to us. Actually, we had all scripts, bar the last two. And it wasn’t ending. Before they came to us, it was like, “How is this gonna happen? Are they going to wrap it up in two episodes or are they coming to us?” It was a lot of pressure in a very short amount of time to decide, “OK, do we just wrap this up in two episodes or do we try and give it a season to properly say goodbye?” There’s a lot of people’s jobs, and there’s a lot of people’s livelihoods, and there’s a whole ecosystem around it. We felt that it needed that kind of time.
Heughan: A lot of thought went into it. I think we were ready to move on or do something else. But also, there was this itch, like we hadn’t finished it and it didn’t feel satisfying for us and for the fans. We wanted to come back and really tie it up properly.
The final season focuses on Claire and Jamie’s struggles during the Revolutionary War, with the war having followed them home. What intrigued you about this final onscreen chapter of their story?
Heughan: Jamie’s concerned about himself in the foremost because he has this information that he’s going to die. But they’ve fought for eight seasons to stay together and to protect everyone they love and the greater community and I think that continues, but there’s so many more distractions or more challenges along the way in this season from the inside.
Balfe: And the Revolutionary War has been circling them for a very long time. It was time for the culmination —
Heughan: [Laughs] Instead of saying “War is coming,” it’s “War is here.’
“There’s a lot of people’s jobs, and there’s a lot of people’s livelihoods, and there’s a whole ecosystem around it. We felt that it needed that kind of time,” says Caitriona Balfe, right, with Sam Heughan, about finishing the “Outlander” story with an eighth season.
(Sophia Spring / For The Times)
The fandom around this property is active and devoted. There’s good that can come from that — the engagement, the creativity — but some bad too, like when things get toxic. What was the learning curve of playing this beloved fictional couple and navigating the fandom?
Balfe: It was a bit of a baptism of fire.
Heughan: We were both quite green when we were thrust into it and engaged wholeheartedly.
Balfe: The landscape is very different. Twitter was Twitter before it was death pit, Instagram was far more innocent as well. In the beginning, it was really nice. I wasn’t a mom. I had loads of time on my hands — well, not really, because we were shooting all the time — but anytime I did, it used to be nice and we would do these quick Q and As. That one-on-one connection with the fans was really, really lovely. I do think there was a moment where … the tide shifted, and this sort of shipper-dom got very intense. I was getting married, and that was having an impact on the people in my life and and I think I had to then step away because I was like, “OK, this doesn’t feel good for everyone in my life.”
Heughan: Look, I think it’s still there. It is a strange one to get your head around. People, in one way, are uber fans of the show, but in other ways, they’re overtly intrusive in your life. But it is a small minority. I think … perhaps we’ve done our job that well? It’s not just about Jamie and Claire, it’s about that person behind it and their life behind it, and their family behind it, that people want to get invested in. I don’t know if it’s a great thing for actors, to be honest, but in this current environment, we’re always asked to give more of ourselves to engage with fans, but it’s been something we’ve had to learn on the job.
Balfe: And I think there are times in your life when you have more capacity to be more open, and there’s times in your life where you need to shut off a little bit more. The overall reception from the fans have been so positive and so supportive of things that we’ve done in our lives, and that is the thing that I choose to focus on with it.
“Outlander” isn’t strictly a romance, but that’s what gives it power. You’ve spent more than a decade in this space. What have you learned about how that romance space functions and what the fans seek from these stories?
Balfe: I was sort of unaware of the need and the appetite that people have for it. Nowadays it’s served an awful lot better, but I think it was an underserved demographic. Or it was not given the due that people needed. It’s sometimes looked on as the second-class citizen of storytelling, in many ways, but I think it’s a genre that allows you to really look at the beauty of humanity and … the core things that we care about, which is love and family and connection.
Heughan: And comfort. It’s comforting. This show proves that there’s a real appetite.
Balfe: There’s many more shows now. Everybody’s talking about “Heated Rivalry.” There’s “Bridgerton.” Maybe it’s the emancipation of women in the last 50 years. It’s like they are finally like, “Well, we want our TV that speaks to us as sexual beings and as mothers and as matriarchs and as professionals and whole round of people.” Our show did that a lot.
“There’s many more shows now,” Balfe says of series that serve up romance. “Everybody’s talking about ‘Heated Rivalry.’ There’s ‘Bridgerton.’ It’s like they are finally like, ‘Well, we want our TV that speaks to us as sexual beings and as mothers and as matriarchs and as professionals and whole round of people.’ Our show did that a lot.”(Sophia Spring / For The Times)
Have you taken stock of just how much Claire and Jamie have gone through as a couple?
Balfe: How many near-death experiences?
Heughan: Yeah, how many times they’ve nearly died or been attacked or assaulted.
Balfe: How many people they’ve killed. Claire, she’s like a serial killer.
I was wondering, because it’s the last season, you can’t get in trouble now, where would Caitriona or Sam have called it quits in this relationship? Like, this is too much, I need to move on.
Balfe: I don’t know if Caitriona would have gone back 200 years in time.
Heughan: When she fixes his shoulder — that’s pretty painful. She gets him in a lot of trouble and he puts himself in a lot of trouble. I wouldn’t have gone past Episode 1 [he mumbles].
Balfe: See! I would have gone to Season 3.
Heughan: No, I think when he sends her through the stones and is like, “That’s it. She’s gone.” But she keeps coming back. I thought I got rid of her, finally!
Caitriona, you make your directorial debut on the show this season with Episode 2. Tell me about that experience.
Balfe: It was so fun. They gave me Episode 2, which allowed me to do my prep before we started. I was so lucky that Jan Matthys, who is the director of Episode 1, was an incredible mentor to me throughout the process. I just got to work with these guys in a totally new way, which was so amazing. I was buzzing. The whole first 10 weeks [of this season] felt like the very first 10 weeks again because you’re learning all these new skills and you’re just in such high operating point; you have to make decisions on the fly, I was also in scenes. It was just mad, but brilliant.
Heughan: You were also probably happy to take the corset off.
Balfe: To be able to walk around in proper wet weather gear and trousers and be able to go to the bathroom — not to be TMI, but it was so good.
They did not give me the easiest episode. Every day had its thing — obviously, the bear attack sequence. Three days before we were filming that, that was a cougar; we were going to have a live cougar. There was a whole thing planned. And a cougar attacks in a very different way than a bear does. So my whole shot list had to go out of the window and I had to rethink the whole thing. But that was kind of fun.
The final season of “Outlander” focuses on Claire (Balfe) and Jamie’s (Heughan) struggles during the Revolutionary War, with the war having followed them home.
(Robert Wilson / Starz)
Finales can be tough, given how viewers chime in on social media. You can’t please everyone. But what was your vision for the ending of “Outlander”?
Balfe: I didn’t really have one. I would not want to have had Matt’s job because that’s a really heavy load to bear, trying to finish this out. But I would say the season was unusual. Normally, we would get an overview of the season before we start. This season, we went into it blind so we weren’t getting sort of any info about what was going to happen. Through the whole season, it was like finding out as the scripts came what was happening. And to be honest, we still don’t really know the ending. We know bits that were filmed, but [not] how he’s going to edit it.
Heughan: I definitely had a firm belief about a certain element of it. I spoke to a few people — few other execs and producers — and there was a common consensus, and I think that might be one of the directions, but it’s going to be a surprise for us when we watch it. I don’t know when we are going to watch it.
Multiple endings were filmed.
Balfe: There was a few different things filmed.
Heughan: Hard to know what’s [going to make it] — it’s all in a same direction. But what direction that is …
Would you call it a happy ending?
Heughan: I don’t know. It was such a secret on the call sheets and stuff.
Balfe: There was different versions of scripts that went out.
Heughan: There were fake people put in. There was a reduced crew.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell reminding you we are only 22 days away from the season opener.
Clayton Kershaw appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday and had this to say about Shohei Ohtani:
“With Shohei, he’s got to pitch and he’s got to hit, and he’s a monster in the weight room, and he’s so fast, all these things,” Kershaw said. “So it’s amazing what Shohei does. And as far as secrets, I don’t know how he does it. I have no idea. I’ve watched him for a few years, still have no idea how he does it.
“I think with the media circus that follows him everywhere and all the Japanese reporters that are in L.A., as a team, we don’t see that. He does such a good job of handling all that and still being a good teammate and still playing really well. So, like I said, it all bakes into the formula … I don’t know how he does everything that he does, because he literally does have a country watching him every second of the day.
“We played opening day in Tokyo last year and that was wild. I think it was probably like what the Beatles were. It’s kind of like that’s what I would experience, just being around Shohei and being on the Dodgers. That was once in a lifetime to see him in Tokyo last year.”
“And he’s funny. He speaks a lot of English, which I don’t know if he lets on to the media too much. But Shohei’s great, and he’s been a great addition to the clubhouse.”
Do Spring Training games matter?
The Dodgers are 8-3 in exhibition games. But does it mean anything? Let’s take a look at the team with the best spring training record since 2016 and also how the Dodgers did each year:
2016 Best spring record: Washington, 19-4, .826 Season record: 95-67, .586
Dodgers: 13-17, .433 Season record: 91-71, .562
World Series winners: Chicago Cubs Their spring record: 11-19
2017 Best spring record: NY Yankees, 24-9, .727 Season record: 91-71, .562
Dodgers: 18-17, .514 Season record: 104-58, .642
World Series winners: Houston Astros* Their spring record: 15-15
*-Astros cheated to win the 2017 World Series.
2018 Best spring record: Boston, 22-9, .710 Season record: 108-54, .667
Dodgers: 17-15, .531 Season record: 92-71, .564
World Series winners: Boston Red Sox
2019 Best spring record: Oakland, 14-8, .636 Season record: 97-65, .599
Dodgers: 14-15, .483 Season record: 106-56, .654
World Series winners: Washington Nationals Their spring record: 17-12
2020 Best spring record: Philadelphia, 15-6, .714 Season record: 28-32, .467
Dodgers: 13-7, .650 Season record: 43-17, .717
World Series winners: Dodgers
2021 Best record: Miami, 14-5, .737 Season record: 67-95, .414
Dodgers: 13-11, .542 Season record: 106-56, .654
World Series winners: Atlanta Braves Their spring record: 15-13
2022 Best spring record: Angels, 11-6, .647 Season record: 73-89, .451
Dodgers: 5-9, .357 Season record: 111-51, .685
World Series winners: Houston Astros Their spring record: 8-5
2023 Best spring record: St. Louis, 17-7, .708 Season record: 71-91, .438
Dodgers: 14-13, .519 Season record: 100-62, .617
World Series winners: Texas Rangers Their spring record: 13-15
2024 Best spring record: Baltimore, 23-6, .793 Season record: 91-71, .562
Dodgers: 14-7, .667 Season record: 98-64, .605
World Series winners: Dodgers
2025 Best spring record: San Francisco, 21-6, .778 Season record: 81-81, .500
Dodgers: 14-9, .609 Season record: 93-69, .574
World Series winners: Dodgers
As you can see, only once has the team with the best spring record gone on to win the World Series. Four times, the team with the best spring record had a losing record in the regular season. The last time the Dodgers had a losing spring record, they went on to win 111 games. So, just enjoy the exhibition games for what they are, meaningless fun.
Or, as Andrew Friedman told my colleague Bill Shaikin about spring training games, “It’s always fun to win. That is always way more fun than losing. But so much of spring training is, just don’t get a call from our trainer. Keep guys healthy.”
Blake Snell unlikely to be on opening day roster
Dave Roberts said that Blake Snell won’t appear in a spring training game this season, which would seem to indicate he won’t be on the opening day roster.
“He’s not on a mound right now. He’s not in games,” Roberts told reporters. “The odds of him starting the season are probably zero…. I think he’s working through it in the sense of, last year he was on a new team. He pushed through things to start the season healthy, which is understandable. And you learn from it, he was never right all year. I think that this year, he’s going to make sure that he is ready to go.”
Gavin Stone sidelined
Gavin Stone, who sat out last season after shoulder surgery, has had a setback.
“Stone threw the inning and then he had a bullpen the next day, and then his shoulder flared up and was sore,” Roberts told reporters Monday. “And so right now, we put him on ice, and trying to let the soreness dissipate. So, given everything that he’s gone through with the shoulder, we wanted to make sure that we kind of pushed pause, so I don’t know when he’s going to start throwing again, but I think it is a setback unfortunately.”
Stone had an MRI on Tuesday that showed no structural damage, just inflammation, which is the best possible news. He will stop all throwing activities for two weeks and be re-evaluated.
WBC schedule
The World Baseball Classic starts today, and five Dodgers are participating: Will Smith for the U.S., Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for Japan, Edwin Díaz for Puerto Rico and Hyeseong Kim for Korea. Former Dodger (how weird does that sound) Clayton Kershaw is also on the U.S. team. Three Dodger minor leaguers are participating: pitcher Antonio Knowles for Great Britain, infielder Jake Gelof for Israel, and pitcher Shawndrick Oduber for Netherlands.
Maury Wills hits a walk-off single to win the 1966 All-Star game for the NL. Watch and listen here.
Until next time….
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
