Sophie Skelton at peace with where Bree ends up in ‘Outlander’ S8newsline24

NEW YORK, March 7 (UPI) — Sophie Skelton says she is satisfied with the story line her time-traveling character Bree gets in the eighth and final season of the fantasy romance, Outlander.

“The show was my whole 20s, so I felt it’s definitely bits of her growth wrapped up in mine. But I feel really at peace with where she is in Season 8 and that definitely made it easier to kind of let her go and separate the two of us,” Skelton, 31, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

“They’re always going to be in our world a bit. The fans love to make these beautiful edits [of our scenes online] and, obviously, it means so much to the fans, so they’re never going to be truly gone. But I think it’s nice to kind of leave them where they are in their little world and kind of move forward. So, we’ll see how that looks.”

Based on the fantasy novels by Diana Gabaldon, this season kicked off Friday on Starz and sees Bree’s father Jamie (Sam Heughan) revealing to her mother Claire (Caitriona Balfe) that a book brought back from the future documents the 18th-century battle in the American colonies where Jamie dies.

Jamie tells his wife, who was born in the 20th century, that if this does, indeed, come to pass, she, Bree, Bree’s husband Roger (Richard Rankin) and their kids should go back to Claire’s natural timeline, but Claire assures him they will stay where they are because the 18th century is now their home.

Rankin, 43, quipped that he is “coping very badly” with the end of the series, but insisted, “I’ll get through.”

“It’s kind of a victory lap and, having completed it, I think, and having wrapped the show up and the last season’s coming out, I’m excited for fans to see that. But, of course, it’s a bittersweet thing to have that thing that you’ve spent so much time on, gone. Just not be there anymore. It’s a strange, strange feeling.”

Skelton said she felt like the cast and crew had experienced the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — after filming ended last year, but promoting the last episodes is stirring up their feelings again.

“We’re kind of opening up old wounds, but it’s nice to virtually even see each other again,” she added. “It’s going to be short and sweet. I feel like it’s going to be over before we know it. So, there’s definitely a sadness there.”

Rankin, who can now also be seen in the Scottish detective drama Rebus, said he will never leave Roger behind entirely after playing him for nearly a decade.

“Roger will feel like he’s always lurking around somewhere and the fans just love it so much. They’re very interactive and they’ll be on socials,” he added.

“You’ll see folks from years past or behind the scenes,” Rankin said. “Sometimes you see the fans at conventions and you have little reminders of the years that have gone by and you still feel largely connected to that.”

Skelton said starring in the contemporary American movie, I Can Only Imagine 2, helped her figure out what her next chapter will be after Outlander.

“I was playing a real woman, so that was a completely different challenge,” she explained.

“But Shannon [Timmons] was amazing, and she was so generous, and I’m so close to her and her family now and it was a really beautiful film set. I could not have asked for a better set to move on to for my first job properly finishing Outlander. It was really magical. That film has a really special place in my heart.”