It’s time for a Droughtlander update!

As all Outlander fans should know by now, season three of our beloved time-traveling drama will not be premiering on Starz until September, which means we still have at least seven more months until we reunite with our favorite Frasers.

To help cope with this prolonged hiatus, we at ET have already released a special interview with stars Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe from our season three set visit in Scotland, and we have plenty of more exclusive behind-the-scenes goodies that we’re going to release over these next few months.

In the meantime, ET caught up with Balfe, who was being honored at the 2017 Oscar Wilde Awards on Thursday night, to get her thoughts on Outlander’s extended on-screen absence and some inside scoop on what’s ahead!

“Yeah, [the Droughtlander] is a little longer than I think people thought. Sorry!” Balfe said apologetically to ET’s Ashley Crossan.

When asked for a tease to hold fans over until September, the 37-year-old actress was quick to point out that ET is going to have plenty of special moments to share. “Oh, I think [ET reporter] Leanne [Aguilera] might have some things up her sleeve from when she came to visit us,” she said with a coy smile.

“I think this season is going to be really interesting and it’s going to be so new again,” Balfe continued. “I mean, I think we do that every season; we sort of flip it on its head. Last season, we went to Paris and it was something totally different. This season, we start off with a little bit of a separate storyline, which is really fun for us. We’re hoping the fans will be as happy.”

For those fans who have not read Diana Gabaldon’s third book in the Outlander series, Voyager, you should be warned that our season three journey begins with Claire and Jamie living in two completely different timelines. Despite Balfe and Heughan’s on-screen separation, Balfe is confident that Jamie and Claire’s reunion in the print shop and their adventures abroad will be worth the wait.

“We’ve got the great reunion happening and then we go to South Africa — well, in the story it’s Jamaica — but there’s old ships involved and it’s just a constantly evolving, exciting adventure.”

Balfe confessed that she departs for filming in Cape Town, South Africa, next week and that she and the rest of the Outlander production team will be there for “a couple of months” to finish up shooting.

“in my head, I’m going on a three-month holiday in the sun, but it’ll be work every day,” she shared. “But it’ll be great. It’ll be really exciting. I’ve read the scripts, the scripts are really great, so I’m really looking forward to that.”

When we jokingly asked Balfe to spill absolutely everything that happens in those highly confidential season three scripts, her response was equally cheeky. “You know, I was going to email them to you, and then do you want to just copy them and put them online? That’d be great. No problem!” she said. [Source]