Outlander: Blood of My Blood arrives this summer, and with it being a prequel to epic historical drama Outlander, that means we're going back in time - but not through the Stones - to gain some more insight into Jamie and Claire's parents, and the important and key players around them. One of those characters is Isaac Grant, chieftan of Clan Grant, played by actor Brian McCardie.
Unfortunately while filming the prequel series, McCardie passed away suddenly in April 2024 due to an aortic dissection. He was 59 years old. At that point, he hadn't finished filming all his scenes yet, which means there's parts of those that were left unfinished. So what are the producers going to do?
Outlander: Blood of My Blood will honor Brian McCardie
Showrunner and EP Matthew B. Roberts told Entertainment Weekly that in respect to the actor and what he brought to the role, the character has not been recast. Instead, to honor him, they are going to include his scenes but change up the rest of the planned storyline to accommodate his unfortunate absence. Here's what he told the news outlet:
"We lost Brian McCardie. He's Isaac Grant and no one could ever be Isaac Grant other than him. We had planned story for him going forward. If there is going to be season 2, we would've planned story for him because he's just such a powerful character. It was a tragedy. But the one thing we wanted to do after we took a beat to grieve was decide that we want to preserve his work. We don't want to recast and reshoot. We want to preserve that."
To that end, some of that planned storyline that was supposed to be played by McCardie as the leader of the Grant clan, was changed up a bit and adjusted. The writers created a new character that could take a part of that story instead, and still made some changes to it, to be able to still tell the tale.
This is so unfortunate and it's truly going to be bittersweet to see the actor's scenes, and then know that he wasn't able to finish. He truly is a talent, and as a fan, I am happy that the Starz show is finding that way to honor him. He actually appeared in Outlander season 1 as Sir Marcus MacRannoch who lived near Wentworth Prison and helped Claire and the rest of the Highlanders break Jamie free with his cattle. And the plan worked! He's also the one of the suitors who had been interested in Jamie's mother, Ellen, and gifted her the iconic pearl necklace that was eventually given to Claire, then Brianna.
As for the character of Isaac Grant, he is the father of Malcolm, a potential suitor for Ellen. She certainly had many men interested in her! Though she only ends up having eyes for Brian of course. Without giving away spoilers, in the book we know that her father wanted her to marry for love.
Though when he passes, Colum and Dougal try to force their sister to marry Malcolm as there's tensions between the two clans and this would help ease that. But of course, we know that Ellen does not in fact marry Malcolm, and runs away with Brian. It will be so interesting to see all of these backstories played out instead of just hearing about them!
Outlander: Blood of My Blood premieres Friday, Aug. 8, 2025 on Starz.