Outlander producers were prepared for season 7 to be their last

Sassenachs, the droughtlander almost became permanent earlier than we expected.

Outlander producers initially prepared for the upcoming 16-episode seventh season to end the series, executive producer Matthew Roberts tells EW. "We thought season 7 would be our final season for the majority of the writing and the production," Roberts says. "It wasn't until we were two-thirds of the way in that we had the announcement that we were going to get season 8. We had an idea of a contingency plan, 'Hey, just in case we get it, we can adjust the last few episodes to carry on.'"

"We went into that writer's room not having any idea and having to assume this would be our last season," executive producer Maril Davis adds.

That assumption led the writers to use more source material than ever for a single season. "We decided, 'You know what? Let's take all the material we have. We might not come back,'" Davis says. "We said, 'Let's take books 7 and 8, let's combine them and take all that material and make the best season we can.' And that's what we did. This is the first time we've taken material from three books."

Stars Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan are grateful they'll have the opportunity to give the series a proper send-off with one more season. "We didn't know there were an awful lot of conversations going on about whether there would be another one or not," Balfe says. "What Sam and I personally felt was that we would like to see it finished up in a proper way and not wrapped up in two episodes or something. It didn't feel like that was fitting."

Robert Wilson/Starz Claire (Caitriona Balfe) contemplates the future — and the past — in 'Outlander' season 7

Balfe admits it's going to be a challenge to hang up Claire's hat. "It's going to be very, very hard to say goodbye to it," she says. "But at the same time, it has to end at some point. Hopefully we'll go out with a bang, and we'll do an amazing season 8 and really do justice to what the journey has been thus far."

Davis won't reveal what the original ending would have been if season 7 had marked the conclusion, but she does hint that it should be fairly obvious to fans of the Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon. When asked whether this season has a greater sense of an ending than previous ones, she's coy. "It did," Davis say. "There's a natural place in the books that you end. If you've read the books, you know that there's a natural place to end."

But that will no longer be where the story comes to a close (and it sounds as if it's not even where season 7 concludes). "We won't be able to end there now because ... we're going to go too far in the story to make that happen. But it would've made it a very satisfying ending. Now we've got book 9, and we've got more stuff to do," Davis says. "I'm thrilled we've got another season, but I could easily see how it could have [ended]."

Part 1 of Outlander season 7 premieres June 16 on Starz.

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