Outlander season 6 is reported as filming from today despite lockdown. Good news for fans, but what’s the bigger picture for the industry in 2021?

According to industry source The Knowledge, Outlander season 6 is filming from today (7 Jan 2021) in Scotland. Great news for the show and those involved in production, and it’s all fully lockdown compliant. Filming takes place at Wardpark Studios, and this season will consist of twelve episodes based on the novel A Breath of Snow and Ashes. More generally news is less positive. While the British Film Institute’s guidance is seen as a gold standard for filming during the pandemic (and is used by Outlander under recommendation of the Scottish government), there is still risk.

As we all know, many shows have been delayed in filming, or have no clear schedule for release at present beyond some time in 2020. Marque titles such as The Boys are not likely to have any release in 2021; shows such as The Witcher have had filming interruptions due to positive Covid-19 tests (and other reasons). We also know a lot of West Coast production was scheduled for restart around now on new schedules, and is now looking at further delays as the pandemic takes a grip. With the landscape of virus variants and vaccines, there is a lot of uncertainty, and further delay must, in our view, mean more shows are likely to get cancelled. Behind the scenes there are shared resources — locations, studios, production teams, and much more. At some stage the production companies will have to make some difficult decisions to protect their most important titles. This is possibly going to mean cancelling shows already green-lit for this year’s production, or delaying them substantially.

As ever, we’ll keep you posted. Until we’ve more news, at least we can wish the Outlander team well.