Dougal MacKenzie loves a good prank — and so do the actors who play the gruff Highland Scot.
In that spirit, original Outlander star Graham McTavish, who played Jamie Fraser’s uncle on the Starz series, made a surprise appearance at the Comic-Con panel for prequel series Outlander: Blood of my Blood to jokingly ask Sam Retford, who plays a younger Dougal in the new show, a question.
“Hello, I’m Graham,” he said to a hearty chorus of cheers from the crowd. “I have a question for Sam. First of all, congratulations on the wig and the beard. It’s so good, and the fact that you wear it out in public is just really tremendous.”
STARZ
Sam Retford as Dougal and Seamus McLean Ross as Colum on ‘Blood of My Blood’
McTavish was riffing on the fact that he is famously bald, while Retford sports a bushy, very full head of hair and intimidating beard.
“I haven’t seen any of the new show, but I’m genuinely, really looking forward to it,” McTavish continued. “I wanted to ask you how did you dive into the soft, sensitive side of Dougal? In your own time, Sam.”
Retford then responded, calling McTavish “dad” before explaining that he’d only met McTavish around 48 hours before. “It really felt like I’d met my dad,” Retford added. “It was very strange. How did I dive into Dougal’s soft side, as you put it so gently?”
“I fell in love with Dougal,” Retford continued, “the first time I laid eyes on you.” McTavish then interjected, “Of course you did.”
“I could think of nothing better than showing how he developed that rough, calloused skin that you show so well,” Retford said. “And just how he lost all of that hair.”
McTavish then joked, “I had a full head of hair just before season 1 and then it was all gone,” before adding, “Thank you very much Sam, it’s lovely to meet you, and I’m gonna leave now.”
When we first met Dougal MacKenzie back in season 1 of Outlander, he was entrenched in his role as the war chief and right hand of his brother, Colum (Gary Lewis), the laird of Clan MacKenzie. But Blood of my Blood shows us a much younger side of the hot-headed Dougal, as he vies with Colum (Seamus McLean Ross) for the title of laird in the wake of their father’s death.
“What I really liked about when we started this process was seeing these people before who they become in Outlander,” showrunner Matthew B. Roberts previously told Entertainment Weekly. “Most of us aren’t the same people we were when we were 18, 19, or 20 years old. Life has changed us as our environment around us changed.”
However, his co-showrunner Maril Davis also noted that one person who hasn’t changed much is Dougal. “The previous episode in Outlander and this episode in Blood of My Blood, he literally decks people with the shinty club for no reason,” she added. “The ball’s not even around. Dougal is this boy turning into a man, who has so much anger in him and wants to prove himself, and there’s such glee behind the eyes in the way that Sam plays this character.”
Netflix
Graham McTavish as Dougal on ‘Outlander’
Though Dougal died in season 3 of Outlander, McTavish made a surprise return in season 7 when Roger (Richard Rankin) and Buck (Diarmaid Murtagh) traveled further back in time than expected and met Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek) before she ever conceived Buck. He also cohosted Outlander star Sam Heughan’s travel series, Men in Kilts.
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Retford will pick up the mantle of Dougal’s tartan when Outlander: Blood of my Blood premieres on Aug. 8 with its first two episodes. And McTavish continues his sojourn in the Starz family with a new role in Spartacus: House of Ashur.
Check out more of EW’s coverage from San Diego Comic-Con 2025.
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