It’s never too early to get excited about future Outlander seasons, and here’s proof:
Multiple entertainment sites have share an announcement from Starz about key casting for season 4:
From TVLine.com:
Outlander has recruited two familiar TV faces — Orphan Black‘s Maria Doyle Kennedy and Downton Abbey‘s Ed Speleers — to take on a pair of key Season 4 roles, TVLine has learned.
Kennedy will play Jamie’s strong-willed Aunt Jocasta, whose plantation Jamie and Claire arrive at early in Drums of Autumn, the fourth of eight books in Diana Gabaldon’s international best-selling series (and the one on which Season 4 is based). Speleers, meanwhile, will portray Irishman Stephen Bonnet, a pirate and smuggler who [SPOILER ALERT] becomes very integral to the series moving forward, particularly in the lives of Brianna and Roger.
Kennedy is coming off of a five-season run playing Mrs. S. on Orphan Black. In addition to his role as footman Jimmy Kent on Downton Abbey, Speleers co-starred in Wolf Hall.
Outlander ‘s current third season will conclude in early December. Production on Season 4 got underway this week in Scotland.
Maria Doyle Kennedy is so talented, and Aunt Jocasta is a fantastic role — she’s tough, she’s shrewd (after all, she’s Dougal and Colum’s sister), and she’s deeply invested in Jamie’s well-being. As for Stephen Bonnet — it’s hard to picture someone going from playing a rather proper butler to the nasty piece of work that Bonnet is, but I suppose that’s the magic of good acting!
Season 3 is simply wonderful, and I’m so excited to see that season 4 will be introducing terrific actors as key characters.
This show. Love, love, love.
Bookshelf Fantasies 
I love both these actors, and I agree. It’ll be difficult to see him playing Bonnet, but I’m sure he’ll knock it out of the park!
I’m sure he will. Well, as a book group friend already pointed out, Bonnet does have the ability to present himself as charming, covering up all the slime underneath, so this could be very interesting!
Ed Speelers is WONDERFUL for Bonnet. He’s got the looks, and I’m sure that will be perfectly contradictory to his personality. Plus, the difference between Bonnet and Black Jack as villains is that with Bonnet, you are almost in love with him when he’s first introduced, and then things deteriorate from there as you get to know him as someone dastardly. (Whereas Black Jack is evil from the first moment.)
I agree, it takes time to fully realize how morally bankrupt Bonnet is, and just what he’s capable of. The scary thing with him is that he doesn’t seem to recognize his own corruption. Can’t wait to see how Ed Speelers portrays him!