The Outlander star Graham McTavish recently gave an interview with sknr.net and it seemed to back up the theory that he could return given the journey his character’s family take in the novels.
The publication asked: “While your character is essentially dead in Outlander; in later books his son with Geilis [Duncan] does make an appearance.
“Is there a flashback opportunity? And what was it like filming something that highlighted the history of your culture?”
Keeping his answer short but pointed, Graham shared: “The beauty of a show that allows time travel is that anything can happen.
“We shall see…” he added tantalisingly.
Reddit fans then began speculating over exactly how Dougal could make his reappearance.
technologicallocker wrote: “So this may be out there… but does Dougal know about Geillis Duncan being a time traveller? And does he suspect Claire at the beginning of Season/Book 1?
“Since he and Geillis were so hellbent on making the ’45 a success… it kinda makes sense that she’d be like: ‘I love you, I’m from the future and we failed there, so let’s destroy the British for real this time.’
READ MORE: Outlander season 5: Will Brianna return to the future with baby Jemmy?
“The whole ‘I think you’re an English spy’ business is the perfect example of beautiful vagueness,” the fan continued. “Because on the one hand – Claire’s a British person running around all lost in prime Redcoat territory. She also knew about the ambush point.
“At the same time, her exact words about the ambush point were: ‘The English – they USED it for ambushes.’ Dougal may be familiar with such past tense phrasing… he followed it up with ‘You have not told the truth about who and WHAT you are, of that I’m sure.’
“Then Geillis randomly shows up and essentially says: ‘Let’s be friends weirdo… people think I’m different… what are you?’”
While the theory could blow things out of the water in season five, fan Fidelius89 offered a different perspective, reminding viewers when Dougal sought out Claire with a message from his wife Geillis.
If Dougal knew the truth about Geillis’ history, he surely would have told Claire in the end.
Stars Sam and Graham recently teamed up to create their own Scottish history podcast Clanlands after working together on the show.
Firm friends and determined to work together on another project, Sam has now posted a video clip on his Instagram page of the pair in the Highlands, proving they’re hard at work.
“It’s been a big day – but we’ve got a lot of amazing stuff,” Graham teased.
“We are sobering up just a bit. We started out pretty hard on the whisky, but we’re slowing down on that now.”
“We’re still alive,” Sam joked, before encouraging Graham to “go to the pub” again.
With the actors spending a lot of time together, has this fuelled the fire even further on Dougal’s return to the series?
Outlander book nine is expected to be released in 2020, and season five arrives on STARZ February 12.