Outlander: EW goes inside the wild, sexy world of the Starz hit

Sex, rugs and rolls in the hay! It’s the time-traveling epic that turned on a nation. As Starz’s hit drama Outlander returns for season 2, EW is pulling back the curtain on all the steamy twists and surprise turns ahead. To continue reading more on Outlander (and those crazy good sex scenes!), buy the new issue of Entertainment Weekly here, or pick it up on newsstands Friday – and subscribe now for all the exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW. Just keep your smelling salts handy…

Sam Heughan doesn’t like to let down the fans.

But the hunky star of Outlander – Starz’s hit series that returns April 9 – always feels like he’s the bearer of bad news when he has to remind folks of the fact that he and his onscreen wife, Caitriona Balfe (Claire Fraser), aren’t an item in real life.

“I think there was a little bit of upset by some fans,” Heughan admits to EW. “It slightly saddens me but I guess it means that we’ve done a good job.”

You bet your woolly kilt it does. Anticipation is high for the second season of the drama that’s based on Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling book series about a WW2 combat nurse (Claire) who travels back to 18th Century Scotland and falls hard for a rugged Highlander (Heughan). That’s why EW has devoted its next cover – and eight scoop-filled pages – to the sexy series from executive producer Ronald D. Moore.

Besides lots of juicy hints about the upcoming season – is Black Jack Randall dead or what? – the cover story also delves into the show’s newest members and the challenge of adapting Gabaldon’s addictive novels for the small screen. We even have an exclusive excerpt from Gabaldon’s ninth book!

So what makes the drama, which attracted more than five million multiplatform viewers per episode, such a kilty pleasure for fans? While the network and Moore would like to tout the show’s heady and historically accurate content, most fans point to the fantastic chemistry between Heughan and Balfe.

“We’ve had to get very close so we do trust each other very implicitly,” explains Heughan. “We’re very lucky that we do have that trust and it comes across to the screen, I guess.”