For six seasons on The CW, The 100 has introduced audiences to a post-apocalyptic future where the last remnants of humanity arrived on Earth after the planet endured as a devastating nuclear Armageddon. The sixth season had the warring factions unite and venture deep into outer space where they found the habitable faraway world of Sanctum. Despite this chance at a fresh start to rebuild civilization, the group discovered that the moon had dangers of its own, from a group of zealously malevolent colonists to temporal anomalies bent the rules of time and space.
As the series prepares for the premiere of its seventh and final season, showrunner and series creator Jason Rothenberg teased what audiences should expect, reflected on the series' legacy and how production just narrowly avoided being suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic in an interview with CBR.
CBR: Something I've noticed with this season -- while you've always touched on them -- you really lean into the sci-fi possibilities of the premise: You've got the temporal anomaly with things moving through space and time. Was that a conscious shift moving into this final season?
Jason Rothenberg: You're right, we've always been a sci-fi show. We've dealt with artificial intelligence and mind control and a hundred other sci-fi subjects but yeah, last season we took a rocket ride to another planet in cryosleep and now we're expanding the playing field to six other planets and riding the rails on the interstellar subway system that we call the anomaly. So, yeah, it was conscious. I'm a sci-fi fan and this season definitely brings that.
You've kind of positioned past season finales to work as potential series finales if the renewal notice didn't come through. When you were planning the end of Season 6, did you know Season 7 was coming?
I knew that the network was really happy with the show and, internationally, the studio was really happy with the show so it took some convincing on my part to get them to allow us to end the show. We didn't know for sure as we wrapped Season 6 but we sort of talked amongst ourselves, really, [writer and executive producer] Kim Shumway and I were basically rolling dice that they weren't going to cancel us in that we kind of left it in a place where it would not have been a satisfying series finale.
There were a couple seasons were we kind of had the hint "Well, it might be the series finale so can you do both?" while we teed up something that might be interesting to do a new season around it and also potentially be it. But, fortunately more times than not, we had a good sense that we were coming back. That's why, from the beginning, we ended on the White Room in Season 1 because we knew we were coming back to tell the Mount Weather story. And in Season 2, we ended with the A.L.I.E. introduction and the idea of the City of Light because we knew we were going through to tell that story. I think you can look back at seasons that ended like as an indication that we probably knew at the time.
You've really come a long way and forged your own path from the original Kass Morgan literary source material. Speaking of rolling dice, what creative risks are you proud of and think paid off in creating interesting new directions?
That's a good question! I feel like right from the beginning, because the book wasn't written when we started, we kind of had the luxury of creating this on a parallel path, that's why we're so different. When I first started there was no book, there was just a concept for a book and maybe a couple chapters written and so, right from the beginning, they were very, very different.
The thing I'm maybe the proudest of is every season is a new adventure, we invent ourselves on the fly all the time, that way it stays fresh with the audience. Some people wish it was the way it was Season 1 and I understand that completely but this is something that's evolved constantly and stayed fresh for us creatively. And for people who've gone along for the ride for seven seasons now, I think they appreciate that too.
I always appreciated the fact that it always feels like you guys are pushing the envelope, in terms of content, on what's allowed on The CW. Was there ever a moment where the network maybe had you tone it down?
First of all, I have to say, yes, we definitely pride ourselves on pushing the envelope on what's acceptable on The CW [chuckles]; I'm often surprised we get away with some of the things that we get away with, frankly. And, to their credit -- with [CW President] Mark Pedowitz, in particular -- they're aware we're competing in a world where people have cable and streaming. That kind of content is kind of expected -- that's the stuff I love -- and it's [what] we try to kind of emulate and live up to with this show. I use the metaphor sometimes that we're the blocking back who bursts through the line of scrimmage and leaves roles for the running backs to follow and the running backs are like The Flash and other shows on the network that can do things that maybe they thought they couldn't do [until] we've broken through in certain areas, mainly when it comes to violence and things like that.
With these first few episodes I was surprised by Raven and Jordan's development. I know it's like picking your favorite children, but whose arcs should we really keep an eye out for this season?
Uh, Sheidheda [a major antagonist in Season 6]! Sheidheda is someone you have to keep an eye out, for sure. [Star Eliza Taylor]'s Clarke is someone you have to keep an eye out for. You're right, though, with Raven, we've sort of built into this season a test for her. Almost from start, she hasn't been forced to do the dirty work. There were scenes in previous seasons where someone would say "We've all done things that we're not proud of!" and Raven would say "I haven't!" so we really wanted to put her through the crucible and see how she reacts between having to make a choice between two impossible, horrible choices. And we see how that affects her this season giving her an insight into Clarke she hasn't had before.
Who else? I mean, it's the final season so I feel you really have to watch all of that and hope that your favorite character gets the ending that they deserve -- most people probably won't think that [laughs]. But, we do.
In addition to serving as showrunner and writing quite a few of the episodes, you got to direct the series finale right before COVID-19 hit. I was wondering how that experience was.
Directing was amazing! I was really terrified by it, I wanted to do it for a couple seasons but I never felt like it was possible because when you direct, you've got to go away for a month. And I'm always sort of rewriting and writing and to sort of pull away from the writers for that long would be problematic and I never had a chance to do it. And I finally said "Who knows if I'll ever get the chance again?" and I took that opportunity and the fact that it was the our series finale and episode 100 -- nothing like setting up a challenge for yourself with your first at-bat. And it was, like I said, terrifying but also exciting and it turned out to be an amazingly rewarding experience that I now wish I had done earlier [laughs].
And yeah, you're right, we were doing it right at the same time everything went to hell with the world. We were two days into shooting, so I had already kind of gotten my sea legs, but we then suddenly had to finish the episode in, like, three days left of shooting. So we had to go amazingly fast and our crew and our cast worked incredibly; really good support to make me look good the whole time. But we were able to do it, we were able to pull a day's work up and finish before everybody shut down. I think we might have been the last show, in Vancouver anyway, still shooting on a Saturday when everything went down but we were getting that show in the can, come hell or high water. Fortunately, no one got sick and we [still] haven't.
Is there any update on the planned spinoff for the series?
There's no update that hasn't already been announced. Mark Pedowitz made a statement the other day at a press conference that we were alive and well and they had a plan for how to move forward -- the trigger has not been pulled on that yet. We feel optimistic. The [backdoor pilot episode] is excellent, it airs as the eighth episode [in Season 7]. So many pilots weren't shot this year, as we know because of COVID, but we were a planned spinoff shot during the season so people will get to see it as episode eight, whether or not it's a series, and it really does fit in beautifully with the narrative of the season and one of the things that, before we knew it was going to be a planned spinoff, we were already going to tell this story because it sort of fills in some big blanks series-wise and season-wise. And so the fact that it also happened to be a story that could then be a launchpad what is essentially a Grounder origin story and could function as a new series with so many interesting actors and characters is gravy.
Just to close us out, Jason, we've got these last sixteen episodes -- which brings the final episode count for The 100 to one hundred which is just kismet -- what can we expect for the final adventures of Clarke Griffin and the gang?
Well, as you say, this is a sci-romp, for sure -- a planet-hopping adventure -- and what I often say about endings is we sat down and talked about our series this year and how we wanted to end things: The way a story ends is what that story was about. And so the moral of the story, as it were, is revealed by the ending. And I think, when all is said and done, and the story is fully unfolded and the curtain goes down on The 100, it will definitely serve as a fitting, moral conclusion to the adventure that we've been watching for the past seven years; I think people will be satisfied by the ending, for sure.
And to speak to the one hundred number, for a second, you're right. We're very grateful that they gave us sixteen episodes this year so we could reach that number. Generally, we've done thirteen episodes since Season 4 but they probably knew that if they gave us sixteen this year, we'd hit a hundred and that is quite a nice number to end on. So, I'm thankful to Mark Pedowitz and [Warner Bros. Television Chairman] Peter Roth for allowing that to happen!
The 100 stars Eliza Taylor, Marie Avgeropoulos, Bob Morley, Lindsey Morgan, Richard Harmon, Tasya Teles and Shannon Kook. The series airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.