Get a First Look at ‘Outlander’ Star Sam Heughan In His ‘Very Sexy’ New Series ‘The Couple Next Door’

Sam Heughan plays an alpha traffic cop named Danny who gets sexually entangled with his neighbors in the new Starz series 'The Couple Next Door.'

Get ready to see Outlander star Sam Heughan in a whole new light. The Jamie Fraser actor is showing off his darker side in the first teaser for Starz’s steamy psychological thriller The Couple Next Door.

Heughan plays an alpha male traffic cop who gets caught up in a relationship with his new neighbor (played by Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson) in the six-episode limited series, which is based on the book by Shari Lapena. And based on what we’ve seen so far, Outlander fans are definitely going to want to tune in.

What is ‘The Couple Next Door’ about?

The Couple Next Door follows two couples living in an upscale suburban neighborhood full of “curtain twitching and status anxiety.” New residents Evie (Tomlinson) and Pete (Alfred Enoch) form a fast friendship with the couple living next door, Danny (Heughan) and his yoga instructor wife Becka (Jessica De Gouw).

Gradually, the two pairs grow closer until, one night, they become sexually entangled with each other in a way that ends up changing their lives forever.

“The main theme of the show is desire and what happens when ordinary people cross their own moral boundaries,” executive producer Jo McGrath explained to TV Insider earlier this year. “It’s the anticipation of this forbidden sex, that slow-burning obsession which will eventually ignite in spectacular fashion and which makes this a very sexy series.”

Sam Heughan’s ‘The Couple Next Door’ character has some similarities to Jamie Fraser

Heughan’s Couple Next Door character definitely doesn’t look to be as fiercely devoted to his wife as Outlander’s Jamie is to Claire Fraser. But that’s not to say there are no similarities between the two.

​​“We needed a star actor who could exude sex appeal but at the same time convey real emotion and vulnerability,” McGrath said of the decision to cast Heughan. “They are both brave, adventurous and loyal. They’re somewhat flawed heroes, stubborn but capable of change. Danny is a macho alpha male, but underneath that tough-guy exterior, he’s a man with secrets struggling to keep his job and family on track.”

Heughan says it was ‘refreshing’ to do something ‘completely different’ from ‘Outlander’

For Heughan, starring in The Couple Next Door was a pleasant change from his work on period drama Outlander.

“Obviously, Outlander is a huge production,” he told Radio Times in 2023, ahead of The Couple Next Door’s U.K. premiere. “You can spend a whole day on one scene, and that’s great, but it was so nice to go on this show, which was so fast-moving and organic. That comes down to the crew and the way the piece works, but it was refreshing to do something completely different and to work with a really core group of actors and cast.”

Tomlinson, who starred in Poldark for six seasons, is excited for fans to see a different side of both her and Heughan.

“It was a real treat – very different for me,” she said. “Working opposite Sam, and us both having come from period dramas was a real draw. I’m excited to turn people’s opinions of us on their heads, and show that we can do something very different.”

The Couple Next Door airs this winter on Starz.

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