As previously reported by Monsters and Critics, there has been a new casting announcement for the adult son of Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). William Ransom will be portrayed by Canadian actor, Charles Vandervaart.
This was exciting news for fans who had to contend with a shortened Season 6 and are now looking for any news during the Droughtlander as filming commences on Season 7.
However, the Outlander author, Diana Gabaldon also revealed that she had to be really careful in order to not spoil the news ahead of the official announcement.
Adult William Ransom actor recently cast
While fans of Outlander are only just learning the exciting news about the casting for William Ransom, the actor and various others involved with filming also knew.
This meant that a variety of people had to remain silent regarding the casting.
For many actors, this is the norm when it comes to filming but, for Diana Gabaldon, she was advised to make sure no one snooping on her official Twitter account worked it out ahead of time.
Diana Gabaldon kept the secret by following decoy actors on Twitter
In a recent interview that Gabaldon did with She Knows, the author revealed the extent she went to in order to make sure news didn’t break early regarding Charles Vandervaart.
“[Starz] made me unfollow him on Twitter,” Gabaldon revealed.
It was something she also did prior to the cast announcement for Jamie Fraser and she used the same method from back then in regard to Vandervaart’s involvement with Outlander.
“I did for him the same thing I did for Sam Heughan when he was first cast because everybody want[ed] to know about Jamie. And so they were following me,” Gabaldon explained.
However, she also had another trick up her sleeve when it came to making sure the secret wasn’t leaked — she started following a bunch of decoy actors.
“I went and found several other young actors of about the same size and general aspect and followed six of them to throw them off the [scent]. So that’s what I did for this young man as well, so I’m still following the decoys.”
Gabaldon then went on to explain that she managed to see the actor in his audition tapes and was very impressed, also offering up some spoilers regarding Season 7. So, for those who want to avoid such things, look away now.
For everyone else, though, it appears that William will find out who his real father is in Season 7 of Outlander, so make sure to tune in to find out exactly how that goes down.
Unfortunately, though, no official word has been issued regarding when exactly fans will get to find this out as Starz has not yet revealed the premiere date. In fact, the network is not even saying yet if the historical drama series will return for an eighth season.
Outlander has been renewed for Season 7, but, as yet, no premiere date has been released by Starz.