Outlander has a dedicated creative team that is looking to build upon the success of season 1, and to ramp up the dramatic stakes for season 2.

At the Outlander season 2 New York City premiere, we had the opportunity to speak with several members of the Outlander creative team: executive producers/showrunners Ron Moore and Maril Davis, costume designer Terry Dresbach, and composer Bear McCreary. Each talked about their vision for the show, and the grand scale on which the show expands for season 2.

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Ron Moore and Maril Davis: Diana Gabaldon, TV writer

As we recently pointed out, sometimes collaboration between author and TV show is non-existent, or goes horribly wrong. This is not the case with Outlander. Diana Gabaldon is actively involved with the series. As Maril Davis pointed out in our red carpet interview, “If she’s pleased, we feel like we have done our job.”

Last year, Gabaldon had a cameo appearance in one episode. This year, she has written an episode (not the Doctor Who episode we joked about for April Fools’). Ron Moore couldn’t have been more pleased with Gabaldon’s expanded role, “It was really a great experience. It was the first time she had done it (written for television). She approached it like a real professional, sat in the writer’s room like every other writer, we broke the story like every other writer, we gave her notes like every other writer. She went to the set in all kinds of weather. She was there day in and day out. I have a lot of respect for her, and how she approached it.”

Bear McCreary: A dead man wrote his own theme music

Arguably, Bear McCreary might be the busiest composer in Hollywood with Outlander, The Walking Dead, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., 10 Cloverfield Lane and much more on his current slate. Among the challenges of Outlander season 2 was how to connect the previous 18th century Scottish Jacobite music with the music of the Baroque Era in France. Somehow McCreary pulls it off. Fans will immediately notice this new blending within minutes of tuning in. The series title song has been given an update with Raya Yarbrough singing a portion in French with new underscoring.

McCreary took inspiration from interesting sources including the Comte St. Germain himself. McCreary told us that, “The real life comte was a composer among many other things. So I had my researcher, naturally I had two or three hours to do this, so I called him up and I go, ‘Can you get me his music? How does by one sound? So he sent me some of his music and I found a theme that he had written that I thought might work for the fictional him in the show. That’s the theme that you will hear in the first episode when we meet him.”

Terry Dresbach: Creating it all from scratch

As we pointed out in a recent article, Terry Dresbach pulled off the completely remarkable 10,000 costumes created from scratch. After getting over her initial terror at the daunting task, Dresbach and her team produced a visual smorgasbord that is jaw-dropping. Is is not unreasonable to talk Emmy contention. The bar has been set very high.

Dresbach explained to us, “At the beginning, what becomes the moment of horror and terror is that there is no store that sells 18th century fabric or shoes, or hats, or purses, or anything. Once you are breathing again, you figure out how to make it. Suddenly you have a team of six kids who were in college two years ago, who were painters and sculptors, and are now operating professional embroidery machines creating 18th century fabrics. That kind of thing takes this incredible journey from terror to delight. There isn’t a costume now that I don’t look at and realize that we painted, embroidered, made buttons… and you’re thrilled with what you and your people were able to pull out of what seems like thin air now.”

Outlander is back for season 2 this Saturday on Starz.

Don’t miss our weekly live Google Hangout, Hangoutlander, that Hypable hosts Laura and Kyle do each week with the crew from That’s Normal, where we talk about the recent episode in a lively fun, funny, and slightly irreverent way. Make sure you catch this week’s show here. You can sign up for a reminder.