“I love Marsali. She was the character that changed my life.”
Outlander star Lauren Lyle is “totally” up for reprising her role as Marsali MacKimmie Fraser in the Starz drama’s eighth and final season.
Marsali and Fergus (César Domby) were last seen in season six when they left Fraser’s Ridge in search of a better life for their children, and while they didn’t appear in the first half of season seven, and Lyle has confirmed to us that they won’t appear in part two either, she did say that she would “absolutely” return for season eight if she was asked to.
Speaking exclusively to to Digital Spy for the release of her new movie Mercy Falls, the actress continued: “I love Marsali. She was the character that changed my life.
“I feel like I’ve grown up on the show a little bit and I deeply love everyone on it, and I love the production, and I love our little family of four children that we have at the age of like twenty-something, and how we just pop them out seamlessly, and it’s just wonderful.
“I love César and I think he feels the same way. We both feel very connected to our characters, and especially with the fans. It feels like we’ve grown up with these fans.”
While Marsali doesn’t have huge role in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander books, Lyle told us that the character was “much more written up in the series” after the writers began to notice that she was a fan-favourite.
“So I’m very grateful for that. I’d definitely do more,” she added.
Going on to discuss the fan reaction to Marsali not being in the latest batch of episodes, Lyle said: “I’ve been getting a lot of messages online saying, ‘We miss you’ and I keep wanting to be like, ‘me too’.
“But then you never know how close to get. It feels weird to not be in it, but it’s just the way the world lay at that time and it happens and it’s fine. I’m so glad the show is going well.”
Lyle also admitted that she’s yet to watch season seven herself, adding: “Once you’re on something it’s a bit strange to watch your friends do certain things that you don’t need to watch them doing. Caitriona [Balfe] and Sam [Heughan] are good friends of mine now, and Richard [Rankin] and Sophie [Skelton] as well.”
The star did, however, add that she will catch up with some of it because it also feels “strange not to have known what’s happening.”
