Frances de la Tour is perhaps best known for portraying Madame Maxime in the “Harry Potter” film universe, and it’s recently been reported that the actress is now joining the cast of “Outlander” in the role of Mother Hildegarde. This was officially confirmed by the show’s network on their official Twitter account, so it looks like fans are going to see her for at least a few episodes in the upcoming second season.
The character she’ll be portraying is a very commanding, towering Mother Superior of Paris L’Hopital des Anges. In “Dragonfly in Amber”, Claire spends a lot of her time at the hospital, and it’s likely that the show is going to follow the plot of the original novel to some extent, since it’s based on it quite heavily. We don’t know how much screen time will be given to her character exactly, but we expect that she might have a somewhat prominent role in the new season.
Her fans might recognize her from other films like “Into the Woods” and “Alice in Wonderland” by Tim Burton, as well as “Big School”, a comedy that aired on BBC One. In the book, Mother Hildegarde has a trusty companion, who will be represented by Frances de la Tour’s own pooch, Bouton. All in all, it looks like the show’s producers are paying special attention to the idea of presenting her character as closely as possible to the original books, which should certainly not go unnoticed by fans who’re familiar with the original novels.
The show’s second season will follow the plot of “Dragonfly in Amber” at least to some extent, as it’s based on the novel. It’s the second book in the “Outlander” series, but we don’t know if this is going to set any trends for the way the show is going to be developed in the future. It’s possible that we’ll see the producers expanding on the plot of the book somewhat, as they have an opportunity to present it in a more diverse and detailed way here.
The show’s producers themselves have expressed their thoughts on the situation, stating that while they’re doing their best to stay true to the storyline of the original books, they also want to take the opportunity to experiment with their own storytelling ideas to some extent, so fans of the books shouldn’t expect a literal one-to-one translation.
Still, we also wouldn’t expect any serious deviations from the plot as that wouldn’t make much sense, and part of the success of the first season was rooted in the fact that it retold the story of an already popular book.
The producers of the show are likely well aware of that fact and they aren’t going to mess up the potential of season 2 by deviating from the original plot too much. But at the same time, we’re definitely curious to see what kinds of changes they might decide to introduce to the story.
As we said above, the possibilities are certainly quite many, and the show’s characters could benefit from a deeper look into their personalities. Diana Gabaldon, the original author of the book series, has expressed her satisfaction by the way the show is being handled, claiming that it’s a solid representation of her ideas, and she sounded excited for the next season. She also seems to be somewhat acquainted with the script for season 2 as well, but she didn’t want to reveal any interesting details about what we can expect to see in it.