Outlander author Diana Gabaldon has confirmed changes to the book ending will happen in season 8, revealing new details about how the TV adaptation is going to close out. Outlander season 8 will be the final season of the long-running historical fantasy drama, bringing Claire and Jamie’s lengthy love story to an end. Season 7 part 2 is expected to set the stage for the final episodes in November, adapting the last part of the seventh novel, An Echo in the Bone.

Posting a comment on her Facebook fan page (via RadioTimes), Gabaldon confirmed Outlander season 8 will have a different ending than her novel series. The author explained how the show still has three books to pull from, including an unpublished tenth installment, meaning the final 10 episodes aren’t going to be able to cover everything, nor deliver an ending similar to what she has in mind. Check out what Gabaldon had to say about the series’ ending below:

There’s only so much I can say about the show, but what I can say is that it really won’t resemble the end of the book series. Coming into Season 8, the show-runners have/had only ten episodes (rather than the sixteen, say, in Season One)–and material from THREE WHOLE BOOKS to fit into that. Season 7 ends (roughly) with AN ECHO IN THE BONE, leaving WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD, GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE, and BOOK TEN almost untouched.

Now, in normal circumstances – one book per season – they can fit roughly 10% of the book’s content into the show. How much of the (VERY roughly speaking) 1,200,000 words of those three books do you think they can get into ten hours of television? Obviously, they’re going to have to cherry-pick some prime scenes/threads to film, and try to fit them into a framework that makes sense for one season, and that they can bring to a reasonably satisfactory conclusion.

I hope y’all will enjoy them both!

How Will Outlander Season 8 End The Show?

The Final Episodes Could Be Drastically Different From The Books

Gabaldon also confirmed that there are many elements of the upcoming tenth novel that won’t be featured in the show, indicating the final episodes won’t be pulling much from the unreleased book. While the timeline for Outlander has typically followed the path of the novels, this change for season 8 makes it unpredictable where the story is going to go. Since there are still three books of content left for it to pull from, the series will have to ensure the most important parts of the story are adapted before bringing it to a conclusion, likely different from the novels.

Since Outlander season 7 part 1 ended in the midst of events from An Echo in the Bone, the novel will likely be the focus for the majority of season 7 part 2. While some elements of later books could also be introduced, season 8 seems destined to forge its own path while pulling important elements from Gabaldon’s later entries. Although this hints the final episodes will be wildly different from the ending of the novel series, the books are still acting as inspiration, meaning the show can deliver a satisfyingly faithful conclusion.

Although it would be better for the show to run long enough for a faithful adaptation, Outlander seems like it will embrace the spirit of the novel series in crafting its own conclusion. This also means the final episodes won’t spoil Gabaldon’s forthcoming book, keeping the source material’s ending a mystery until the novel comes out. With a total of 18 episodes split between two seasons left for the show, it should prove interesting to see what elements from later books are used in season 8 to finish the series.