The 100 returns for season 5 in April 2018. At Walker Stalker Con in London, cast members Eliza Taylor, Richard Harmon and Sachin Sahel teased what’s ahead for their characters.
We’re all eagerly anticipating the return of The CW’s The 100, which for its fifth season is jumping six years into the future to find Clarke Griffin living alone on Earth, having raised a Nightblood child named Madi as her own, and anxiously awaiting the return of her friends.
Under the Polis rubble, 1,200 souls are trapped, at the mercy of unlikely leader Octavia Blake. In space, Bellamy, Raven, Harper, Murphy, Monty, Emori and Echo are… well. We don’t really know what they’re doing up there.
Related: The 100 season 5: 19 big things we learned at SDCC 2017
We do, however, have a lot of tantalizing tidbits of information about The 100 season 5, which we can speculate about until that elusive trailer appears — which might be sooner rather than later!
A bit of new information came out this weekend, when Hypable attended Walker Stalker Con in London to host their Q&A panel and conduct a couple of interviews with the cast.
In our interview with Richard Harmon (Murphy), we learned that Murphy will not be in the best place, mentally, at the start of season 5. Harmon said that Bellamy is his “only friend” once the season starts, and that Murphy will continue to be tempted by the “poison” inside of himself. Read the full interview for more details.
We also have a fantastic interview coming up with Sachin Sahel (Jackson), which may or may not tease the bunker storyline and how Jackson’s potential relationship with Miller impacts the character. Look for that interview to be published at the end of the week!
What follows is an extensive summary of the main The 100 panel, which featured Sahel, Harmon and Eliza Taylor. Hopefully it’s helpful for everyone who wasn’t present at the event! The panel was also recorded by audience member @Hookfoundme, who has graciously made it available to watch in full.
For your convenience, here are the most interesting/revealing parts of the panel. The quotes are transcribed from the recording above, to the best of my ability. Enjoy:
Highlights from ‘The 100’ panel at Walker Stalker Con in London
- When asked which character’s time-jump developments the fans would be most surprised by, Taylor first said Murphy; Harmon responded “I don’t know if they’d be surprised,” and Taylor then changed her answer to Abby, saying, “she has a crazy arc this season, and it’s amazing.”
- In terms of what interests them most about the show, Taylor said, “The whole post-apocalyptic thing is something that seems very real to us right now. We’re in a very interesting place in the world, and what people will do and what lengths they go to to survive and keep the human race alive is, to me, fascinating. And we get to explore that on the show.” Sahel added that, “We’re closer to something like that than we ever thought we’d be 10-20 years ago, so it’s not some far-fetched sci-fi thing. It’s terrifying.”
- Sahel’s favorite thing about The 100 is that, “It has put everyone at their base level. There’s no time for pretense or fake personalities; you are exactly who you are because you have to make decisions that are life and death every day, and it’s cool to see people evolve through such raw emotion.” Harmon added, “It took the audience a little bit of time to realize that maybe they wouldn’t do it any differently than our characters, and that seems so crazy, until you realize that … we really are dissecting what human nature in those situations might look like.”
- Eliza Taylor was asked about Koh Tao Primary, the school she opened in Thailand, and said, “It’s one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire life.” She thanked everyone who donated, and added, “This school has made me a better person; it has made me so grateful to be able to look after these kids and give them a proper education.” You can donate to their most recent campaign here.
- When asked how Clarke will feel about and remember Lexa after the six-year time jump, Taylor said, “Oh, the way anyone who has lost someone that they love remembers them: it’s like the day they met. It’s painful, but there’s still all of the love.” Harmon added, “But time can heal certain wounds.”
- If the actors could take one of their own personality traits and give it to their characters, they all wanted more humor. “I want Jackson to tell one joke,” said Sahel. “I want to take one of those ‘Day Trip’ nuts they took in season 1, and be like, ‘Abbyyyyy!'” On whether we could expect any humor in season 5, Sahel gave a “hard no,” but the others said that Murphy does have some quips.
- When asked about the challenges of playing Clarke, Taylor said, “For a long time I’ve been saying that I’m nothing like Clarke, and that I’m not brave; that I couldn’t survive or whatever. But I’ve actually discovered that that may not be true. There is a lot of me in Clarke, and I do have tenacity, and I am brave. And that’s something Clarke taught me: that I’m actually pretty kickass myself.”
- Taylor didn’t know Clarke was bisexual from the beginning — and in fact, another cast member realized it before she did. “When I was shooting with Alycia [Debnam-Carey],” remembered Taylor, “Thomas McDonell, who played Finn, came up to me and was like, ‘You guys are totally getting together.’ And I was like, ‘…Yeah, that makes sense!’ I just hadn’t thought of it that way, and I didn’t know it was building to that, but he was just like, ‘Oh you guys are totally getting together.’ And I [asked], ‘Have you spoken to the writers?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I spoke to all of them!’ He was lying, he just saw it before they’d even written it. But there was just this amazing chemistry, and honestly, thank God. It made my character so much richer. And I got to play the first bisexual lead on network television, which is fucking awesome.”
- When asked how the romance storyline enriched Murphy’s character, Harmon gave a shout-out to Luisa d’Oliveira (Emori), saying, “Luisa — who is just such an amazing actress and wonderful friend — she obviously completely flipped my character upside-down, which was a big change for me. [The relationship] grounded the character in a place that previously I don’t think was possible. And now, without giving away too much, six years into the future it’s kind of just them still dealing with what their relationship is; kind of the ups and downs of life. And that’s a part of Murphy I didn’t think I’d ever get to play: the one whose heart is attached to someone else’s, which is such a dangerous game to play.”
- On Jackson’s potential relationship with Miller, and how that might change him, if it actually is going to be a relationship (ahem), Sahel said, “Until now, [Jackson]’s had to be completely objective — and he could be, because he just had to care about his job. [But] if you have a romantic entanglement — if he does — he now has to start thinking emotionally about the people he cares about. Because that stuff starts to come out. So if it interferes with his job… Because he has to think about if his love is out there. He’s not just thinking about healing people, he’s thinking, ‘Oh my god, who’s the first person I wanna see when they come back,’ and help them, or whatever the case may be. It’s always been Abby, and now there’s somebody else. That would be a cool wrinkle to his character.”
- How will Clarke deal with the changes she sees in Bellamy, or her mother or her other friends? “That’s a tricky one,” said Taylor. “She’s reuniting with all of them in very, very different ways. The most different will be with her mother, because [Clarke] has now become a mother, and she understands it a lot more, but she also still has this animosity with her. That will be interesting.”
- Talking about how much Abby loves Murphy (because of course), Harmon said, “In this season, there’s a reference that we care for one another.”
- While Sahel and Harmon wouldn’t reveal if/how much their characters will interact with Madi, Harmon said, “Lola [Flanery] is badass, I love that girl, and working with her was a great time.” Taylor added, “That’s my girl!”
- On why Madi and Clarke’s relationship is described as mother/daughter (as opposed to a sibling relationship), Taylor said, “She finds [Madi] when she’s such a small baby, and she raises her. So it gives Clarke this incredible sense of purpose, and makes her devote all her love and attention to one thing, as opposed to looking after everyone all the time. This is giving her this incredible sense of purpose.”
- Even though the cast aren’t about the ‘musical episode’ idea, they do concede that there are many musicians in the cast — including Eliza Taylor herself, who said she is working on a new song — and wondered about the possibility of getting the Praimfaya band to play some gigs for fans.
- Harmon wants to do more Murphy/Clarke scenes because, “There is so much untapped potential between those two characters.”
- Taylor wants to do more scenes with both Jackson and Murphy; “You’re basically like my brother,” said Taylor about Jackson; Sahel conceded that Clarke and Jackson “grew up together for sure.”
- Sahel pitched an idea for an episode all about Jackson, in the style of Supernatural‘s “Ghostfacers,” saying, “Jackson won’t say anything the whole episode. It’ll be called ‘Eric.’ He’ll be in the background of important scenes, just sitting there doing work, while actual things are happening.”
- When asked what three characters they’d choose to survive until the series finale with their own, Sahel picked four: Clarke, Abby, Bellamy and Miller. Harmon said Bellamy, and then decided that he didn’t need anyone else. He didn’t want to include Clarke, because, “I’ve seen the way [Bellamy] looks at you. I’m not gonna compete with you, you’re Bellamy’s love, right?” Taylor responded, “Well, I was gonna say Murphy, but not anymore. I’ll take my Madi.”
- Taylor and Harmon’s favorite character in season 5 is new Eligius character McCreary (played by William Miller), and Sahel’s favorite character is Miller. #onbrand
- If they could do a Groundhog Day episode, Taylor would do “Day Trip.” Sahel wished he had been on the ground for that episode too.
- Harmon shared an interesting theory about Murphy and/or Bellamy’s possible demise: “I really do believe, after everything they’ve been through — and I don’t think, if it happens, that they’re gonna want it to happen — but Murphy or Bellamy has to kill [the other]. It’s not gonna be like a happy thing — they do really love each other at this point — but I feel like something has to drive them to a place where one has to kill the other. Maybe a mercy-kill. After everything they’ve been through.”
And finally, fans attending the con were also able to ask the cast some questions at the autograph tables and photo ops.
While we can’t include everything that was said (and we also respect fans’ wishes that we don’t relay this information as our own), The 100 fan @imwithbellamy was able to relay some fantastic bits of information, which we’ve shared below with her permission!
As I always do, I asked the cast which episodes of season 5 are their favs: @MisElizaJane: The finale and episode 1@Sachin_Sahel: episode 2@RichardSHarmon: 3 and either 9/10/11 because he doesn’t know which it is@hicusick: 10 (which he directed so…) 11 #The100 #wsclondon
— Em. w/ post con depression? (@imwithbellamy) March 11, 2018
Me: “what’s your favourite dynamic of season 5?”@MisElizaJane: ooohh what is my favourite dynamic of season 5?
Clarke and Bellamy. They have some real ups and downs this season.”Imagine I’m still alive?? #WalkerStalkerCon #The100 #Bellarke pic.twitter.com/oGXDDt3wTd
— Em. w/ post con depression? (@imwithbellamy) March 11, 2018
I also asked everyone their favourite dynamics of season 5:@MisElizaJane: Clarke and Bellamy@Sachin_Sahel: Octavia and Bellamy@RichardSHarmon: Murphy and McCreary@hicusick: Octavia and everyone #The100 #walkerstalkerlondon
— Em. w/ post con depression? (@imwithbellamy) March 11, 2018
Hopefully that all helps to drum up your excitement about The 100 season 5!
Check out Hypable’s other The 100 coverage, and make sure you keep an eye out for the trailer/other exciting announcements…
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