While The 100 may be poised to end with its seventh season this summer, series creator and showrunner Jason Rothenberg has planned a prequel spinoff series, with a backdoor pilot episode airing as part of Season 7.
Previous reports revealed the episode title will be "Anaconda," which Rothenberg later clarified would not be the title for the spinoff series itself. In an upcoming exclusive interview with CBR, Rothenberg revealed the pilot itself would air as the eighth episode of the final season.
"There’s no update that hasn’t already been announced. [CW President] 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," explained Rothenberg. "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," Rothenberg continued. "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."
Details on the episode are still under wraps but will reportedly follow a new cast of characters 97 years before the start of the main series in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear armageddon that devastated the entire planet.
The 100 stars Eliza Taylor, Marie Avgeropoulos, Bob Morley, Lindsey Morgan, Richard Harmon, Tasya Teles and Shannon Kook. The series will return for its seventh and final season Wednesday, May 20, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.