‘Outlander’ Season 3 Spoilers: Opening Scene Has Been Changed From ‘Voyager’ Book

“Outlander” will continue to keep book readers on their toes. Showrunner Ronald D. Moore revealed that he changed the opening scene of Season 3, and it is much more gruesome than what Diana Gabaldon’s book, “Voyager,” described. Fans will see the Battle of Culloden again on the Starz drama.

“It just felt like for the TV show, we’ve been promising this for a while and it just felt like we should have something,” Moore told Entertainment Weekly. “We should give the audience some sense of what happened on that moor.”

The time travel series will kick off with Jamie (Sam Heughan) fighting Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) on the battlefield. Considering all the pain and suffering Black Jack is responsible for, it’s probably going to be violent. New photos from the premiere certainly make it look bloody.

That’s pretty different than what Gabaldon wrote in her novel, though. “Voyager” opens with Jamie not being able to recall what happened at the battle.

Hopefully, “Outlander” fans know that they can trust Moore’s changes. This isn’t the first time he has tweaked the source material. Angus (Stephen Walters) was killed in a Season 2 episode after a scheduling issue prevented Finn Den Hertog from returning as Willie, who was supposed to get the axe.

Gabaldon doesn’t seem to mind these changes, though. She even made changes for television when she wrote episode 11 of Season 2. While her book doesn’t show the Duke of Sandringham’s death, Gabaldon and Moore agreed that it would be more “dramatically satisfying” for viewers to see him beheaded.

Despite this change to the opening of “Outlander” Season 3, there is still plenty of material that will likely stay faithful to the books. Audiences are excited to see some beloved characters make the jump from page to screen this year. David Berry has been cast as Lord John Grey, a prison governor that Jamie befriends, and John Bell will portray Jamie’s gawky nephew, Ian Murray. In the 20th century, Claire (Caitriona Balfe) will meet Joe Abernathy, played by Wil Johnson. As a woman and a black man, Claire and Joe feel like outsiders in medical school.

“Outlander” Season 3 will premiere on Starz in 2017.